Mezzanine Gallery

The Delaware Division of the Arts’ Mezzanine Gallery is pleased to present Diosas & Guerreras: The Living Canvas, a solo exhibition of wearable art and photography by Dayesla Ixtli, on view October 2-30, 2026. An opening reception will be held Friday, October 2, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the Mezzanine Gallery, located in the Carvel State Office Building at 820 N. French Street, Wilmington. Admission is free and open to the public.

The exhibition’s title means “Goddesses & Warriors.” Drawing on ancestral myth and Mexican folklore, Ixtli transforms the human body with handcrafted headpieces, sculpted armor, textured prosthetics, and special effects (SFX) body paint, then captures each finished transformation in photography. The women in these images are divine protectors, nature deities, and warriors. Together, the works push back against the narrow roles women are so often handed.

Ixtli treats the body itself as her canvas. “My practice as a visual artist is rooted in the transformative use of the human form as a living canvas,” she says. The figures she creates carry what she calls “raw power, divinity, and autonomy rather than fragile ornamentation.”

Featured works include Mictecacíhuatl: Lady of the Dead, named for the Aztec goddess of the dead, which pairs a sculpted mixed-media headdress with SFX body paint. In Nymph, a handcrafted floral headpiece crowns the figure, and Yemayá: Queen of the Waters is built around a handcrafted crown and trident. The exhibition opens during Hispanic Heritage Month and closes just ahead of Día de los Muertos on November 1 and 2.

Every piece is a full build of headpiece, accessories, props, wardrobe, hair, and makeup. Ixtli calls the end of that process the “anxious final moment,” when every element has to work together “perfectly as one final product.” Seeing it land with an audience is the reward. She describes it as “a moment of shared wonder that nurtures my inner child.”

She is self-taught, and her practice began as a form of self-care. After her youngest daughter was born in the middle of the COVID pandemic, she started creating her own artistic makeup and found it gave her a real sense of accomplishment. “It wasn’t until those difficult times that I was truly able to immerse myself and dedicate myself to this discipline,” she says. Only after building that foundation did she take formal beauty makeup training to round out her skills.

Diosas & Guerreras comes as Ixtli marks her recognition as a 2026 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellow in the emerging artist category for interdisciplinary visual arts. She plans to use the fellowship to explore body-safe pigments and natural adornments that make her work more sustainable. She also sees it as validation of her path as an artist. “Art is always saving lives, whether it is for the artist or the spectator,” she says, and the fellowship gives her an “essential push” to keep going.

Dayesla Ixtli is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist based in Newark, Delaware, working in wearable sculpture, SFX body paint, and creative makeup. Born in Tenancingo, Estado de México, she draws on Indigenous and Latin American spiritual traditions, cultural memory, and mythology. Her artist name honors her Indigenous heritage. Ixtli is the Nahuatl word for “face.” Over the past five years, she has been an invited artist at regional festivals, cultural celebrations, fashion shows, and performance art events. She has performed as The Magic Marigold Catrina at the Penn Museum’s Day of the Dead celebration, worked as one of the makeup artists on Alba Martínez’s 2022 short film La Guagua 47, and was the cover feature of Del Hispano Magazine in October 2025. She also runs her own business as a freelance face painter and makeup artist. Ixtli is a 2026 Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellow.

Couldn’t attend the gallery or just want to relive the experience? Check out our photo albums of each event on our Flickr account.