An artificial reality system is described that renders, presents, and controls user interface elements within an artificial reality environment, and performs actions in response to one or more detected gestures of the user. In one example, an artificial reality system comprises an image capture device configured to capture image data representative of a physical environment; a head-mounted display (HMD) configured to output artificial reality content; a gesture detector configured to identify, from the image data, a gesture comprising a motion of two fingers from a hand to form a pinching configuration and a subsequent pulling motion while in the pinching configuration; a user interface (UI) engine configured to generate a UI input element in response to identifying the gesture; and a rendering engine configured to render the UI input element as an overlay to at least some of the artificial reality content.