Elijah Sylar Returns to Denver Art Scene After Transitioning, Traveling Across 47 States

When Westword last spoke with the artist now known as Elijah Sylar, it was 2017, and he was preparing to drive across the country and paint all fifty states. Back then, Sylar publicly went by a different name and identity, and the plan seemed straightforward: travel, create and publicly document America through surrealist acrylic paintings.

But somewhere around the six-month mark on the road, the journey shifted. The timeline loosened, the pace slowed and something deeper began to surface.

“I just realized I was going at a pace that wasn’t sustainable for me,” Sylar recalls. “So I decided this was going to be more of a personal journey instead of a set timeline. That was the beginning of it changing, and then realizing I wanted to transition made me want to make my travel more of a private experience.”

Sylar continued painting across the country for three years, traveling through 47 states, taking seasonal jobs, building temporary studios in hostels, sharing mural work in exchange for housing, and quietly transitioning. The work never stopped. It simply became private.

Now, eight years later, Sylar is reemerging publicly. On November 14, he will show new large-scale paintings in a group exhibition organized by the sober art group Aqui Art Show. It marks his first public showcase since transitioning and, in many ways, the completion of the journey he began in 2017.

“I’ve been back in Denver for five years now, but I think a lot of that was still a private journey,” he says. “I got a studio, and I was selling my artwork to some friends and keeping it kind of low-key, and I think a lot of that was trying to decide, like, when I was ready to come back into the art world and connect to who I was and who I am now. So much has changed, but now feels like a really good time to start being visible again.”

Part of that change is reflected in the scale and process of his work. Before he left Denver, Sylar’s paintings were intimate in size, often no larger than 18-by-24 inches. In the years since, they’ve expanded into pieces several feet tall, their compositions layered and time-intensive. He describes this evolution as a kind of parallel to his transition.

“I think I work really large now because I feel more able to show my inner world,” he says. “Before, I would move through pieces really fast, trying to get to what I was trying to say. Now I can stay with something. One of the pieces in the show took me three years to finish. That’s totally new for me.”

That three-year piece, which will be on view on November 14, depicts a toucan skeleton interlaced with flowers and pitcher plants. The imagery carries both tension and tenderness. For Sylar, it serves as both a meditation on change, loss and the strange, beautiful balance of growth emerging from discomfort.

“It represents the difficulty and the beauty of transition,” he explains. “We’re all changing and we’re all growing, and I feel like that always looks like very difficult times, followed by very beautiful moments of progress, and I think both of those things can be challenging to sit with, and so I made a piece that I felt held all of the chaos in a beautiful way.”

Though his transition unfolded privately, community still shaped his work. Sylar made connections with LGBTQ+ groups in Wisconsin, Asheville and elsewhere during his travels and return to Denver, and he found acceptance in sober and recovery-oriented arts spaces. While Sylar is not in recovery himself, he says he has long gravitated toward those environments.

“I really respect the authenticity and honesty of sober communities,” he says. “Especially in the art world, having a sober community means having a grounded community. That’s part of why the Aqui show feels like the right place to return.”

His decision to re-enter public art-making came quickly and unexpectedly. After years of uncertainty and waiting for a moment that felt right, the moment simply arrived. A friend sent him the call for submissions for the Aqui Art Show, and something clicked.

“I’ve always felt like the universe wanted me to tell my story and be visible,” he says. “I finally felt ready. And literally that same day, I got a message about this show. It just felt like, ‘Okay, it’s time. Game on.’ And that day, I got a direct message from one of my friends about this group show that was going on.”

For Sylar, returning to public exhibition isn’t simply about showing new work; it’s about stepping back into a world he once left, this time with his full self intact. The years of private growth have brought him to a place where being seen feels both possible and necessary. Sharing his work now is as much about the art as it is about the act of showing up, claiming space and offering a version of trans adulthood rooted in pride.

“I feel like LGBTQ people need to be visible, especially now,” Sylar says. “I think it’s important for the younger trans kids to see a representation of older trans people thriving and making beautiful things and being visible out there. It’s obviously scary to be visible and to be vulnerable, but it’s also really important to keep in mind the impact that you can make by being authentic and visible.”

Elijah Sylar’s work is on view Friday, November 14, from 6 to 10 p.m. at 1790 South Bannock Street. Learn more at instagram.com/p/DQU4Lt3AT_r/.