Andy Šlemenda (they/them) is a genderqueer artist, scholar, and cultural producer from western Pennsylvania, currently based in Pittsburgh. Rooted in their rural Appalachian upbringing, their practice explores the intersections of gender fluidity, mysticism, and communal ritual as pathways toward transformation and transcendence. Through performance, installation, and advocacy, they create spaces that subvert dominant narratives and celebrate the sacred, ephemeral, and collective dimensions of queer experience.

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Drawing from the spiritual vernacular of Appalachia, particularly the religious and social pluralism of Pennsylvania, where tradition, labor, and faith intertwine, Šlemenda’s work positions the esoteric as a site of liberation. Their performances and assemblages engage with marginalized religious histories, embodying gender-nonconforming figures and mystical traditions that unsettle the boundaries between body and spirit, self and other, good and evil. In these works, transformation becomes both a ritual act and a political gesture, revealing the radical potential of queer becoming.

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Šlemenda has exhibited and performed throughout the United States, France, Germany, Turkey, and Canada, including site-responsive works at the historic East Hoosuck Quaker Meetinghouse in Adams, Massachusetts. Their work has been featured in exhibitions curated by feminist pioneer Martha Wilson and published in Revolver (Berlin) and Strange Fire Collective.

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They are a former Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation Fellow (Paris) and were recognized in 2023 as both a Millay Arts resident and Vincent Prize recipient. Recent presentations include a performance and exhibition for New York Upstate Art Weekend at Turley Gallery, and a 2025 installation at the Athens Cultural Center in Athens, New York.