Biography

Luisé is a Chicago-based non-binary Mexican-Canadian artist currently pursuing an MFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Working across sculpture, installation, and public art, Luisé's career is rooted in artistic immigrant queer advocacy. In September of this year, Luisé received the 2025 Arts Recognition Award from the Quinte Arts Council. Luisé earned a BFA from OCAD University, where ze was recognized with the IGNITE Installation Award Exhibition, the BMO Sustainability Award, and the Haydn Davies Memorial Award for hir thesis works titled Happening in the Land and Embodiments of Happenings thesis work. That same year, Ze also designed the Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award trophy. In 2024, Ze was awarded the 2024 Craft Ontario Community Award for the Queer Quinte: Memory & Celebration solo exhibition honouring Pride Month at the Quinte Arts Council Gallery in Belleville.

Ze is a two-time recipient of the Jurors’ Choice Award at the Pride London Art Show (TAP Centre for Creativity, 2017 and 2018). Luisé has also sold various commissioned paintings and sculptures to private collectors in Canada as well as to the City of Toronto with support from Councillor Kyle Rae. Additionally, Luisé has completed a number of public art works including murals across GTA in Ontario as part of the “Outside the Box” program at Street Art Toronto, with recent works “Immigration” located in Scarborough (Warden Avenue and Bridletowne Circle, 2023) and “Diaspora” in downtown Toronto (Front Street and St. George, 2022), as well as a group show at BigArtTO (Scarborough-Agincourt Building). Luisé's other exhibitions include the Arts Council Windsor and Artcite Inc. (Windsor, Ontario), the LAI-4 exhibition (New York City, Bogotá, and Brooklyn), and Artwerk! Collective (Art Gallery of Ontario). Ze also presented hir first solo exhibition taking place at Cry Baby Gallery in 2023.