Artist Bio

Evita Tezeno (b. 1960) is a Port Arthur, Texas native and graduate of Lamar University. She lives and works in Dallas.

Evita Tezeno’s collage paintings employ richly patterned hand-painted papers and found objects in a folk-art style. Her work depicts a cast of characters in harmonious everyday scenes inspired by her family and friends, childhood memories in South Texas, personal dreams, and moments from her adult life—and influenced by the great 20th century modernists Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, and William H. Johnson—scenes of joy animate her vision of a Black America filled with humanity.

As the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Fine Arts from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York and the Elizabeth Catlett Award for The New Power Generation, Tezeno has built a career as an acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist. Her work is included in the permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art; African American Museum of Dallas; Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA; Embassy of the Republic of Madagascar; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; Bill and Christy Gautreaux Collection, Kansas City, MO; and Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Palm Beach, FL; among others. In addition, her work has been acquired by prominent collectors, entertainers, media personalities and athletes, including Esther Silver-Parker, Samuel L. Jackson, David Hoberman, Denzel Washington, Star Jones, Laurie David, and Susan Taylor, among others. She has been awarded commissions by the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, The Deep Ellum Film Festival in Dallas, and the legendary New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (“Jazz Fest”), where in 1999 she became the first female artist to design its celebrated Congo Square poster.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Out of Many (2023) at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, Houston, TX; My Life, My Story (2022) and Better Days (2021), both at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Evita Tezeno and Jas Mardis: Sharing Memories (2021) at ArtCentre of Plano, Plano, TX; Memories Create Our Yesterdays and Tomorrows (2019) at Thelma Harris Gallery, Oakland, CA; Memories That Speak To My Soul (2018) at Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA; and Thoughts of Time Gone By (2017) at Peg Alston Gallery, New York, NY.

Selected group exhibitions include Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary Art Collage, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX (2024); Solace and Sisterhood , MOCA Arlington, Arlington, VA (2024) ; Talk of the Town: A Dallas Art Museum Pop-up, NorthPark Centre, Dallas, TX; Layer / Build: Contemporary Collage (2023), Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Gallery 51, North Adams, MA; Catharsis (2022), Eduardo Secci Gallery, Milan, Italy; Réinterprétation (2020) at C.O.A. Contemporary Art Gallery, Montreal, Canada; Phenomenal Women #UsToo (2019) at the African American Museum, Dallas, TX; Flagrant Rules of Ensued Emancipation (2019) at John Milde Gallery, Dallas, TX; Modern Day Muse (2019) at ArtCenter of Plano, Plano, TX; Arts Past & Present (2018) at George Bush Library, Dallas, TX; Daughter of Diaspora — Women of Color Speak (2018) at Hearne Fine Art, Hot Springs, AR; and New Power Generation (2012), curated by Myrtis Bedolla at Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA.

Her work has been published and featured in numerous publications and media outlets, including Artforum, Artillery Magazine, Art Matters with Edward Goldman, Document Journal, Black Art in America, Collective Arts Network Journal, Culture Type, The Dallas Examiner, D Magazine, Dallas Morning News, Dallas Woman , Eclipse Magazine, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Glasstire, Harper’s Bazaar, North Dallas Gazette, ONYX Magazine, The Shreveport Times, Visionary Art Collective, Visual Art Source, Vogue , NBC 5 – DFW (video), and MAG-RAW Creations (video).

© Copyright 2024 Evita Tezeno