Elena Vance
Austin-based Biophilic Sculptor & Public Muralist
- TenureJanuary 2026 to December 2026 (12-month annual residency)
- MediumsSalvaged Texas cedar · Preserved moss acoustic art · Kinetic water & welded steel
Bio & philosophy
Elena Vance grew up between a welding shop in South Austin and her grandmother's shaded garden in Bastrop, and her work has never stopped moving between those two rooms. She trained in sculpture at Texas State, then spent a decade fabricating public installations for parks, transit plazas, and hospital courtyards across Central Texas.
Her practice runs on what other people throw away. Cedar cleared from an overgrown lot, limestone offcuts from a demolition, copper pulled out of a remodel, each becomes something that holds sound, water, or shade. Native plants are treated as a material with the same seriousness as steel, chosen for what they will do for pollinators and for the person sitting nearby ten years from now.
What guides the residency is accessibility. Art should be touchable, hearable, and reachable from a wheelchair or a walker. Every piece Elena makes for a neighbor in our relief program is designed with an occupational therapist's questions in mind: can they get to it, can they use it, and does it make the yard feel like theirs again?
