CV
Download CV
Born 1966, Denton, TX, USA
Lives and works in Houston, TX, USA
EDUCATION
Painting Certificate of Achievement, The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Bachelor of Music, Rice University, Houston TX
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 “Can’t See the Forest,” Houston Art League, Houston, TX
2022 “Hollows and Grottos: The Arboreal Worlds of Renata Lucia and Tom Sale,” Russell Farm Art Center, Burleson, TX
2018 “News vs. Nature (Gulf),” Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2013 "Vintage,” Buchannan Gallery, Galveston, TX, with Tami Merrick
2009 “The Sky Has No Memory,” Box 13 ArtSpace, Houston TX
“Interstand,” Project Row Houses, Houston TX
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2027 (Expected) “REWILDING - VILLIINNYTYS,” Gallery Pirkko-Liisa Topelius, Helsinki, Finland and Koelsch Gallery, Houston, TX; curated by Kelly Moran and Inka-Maaria Jurvanen
2026 (Expected) “Luck of the Draw: Chaos,” DiverseWorks, Houston, TX
2025 "The Big Show 2025," Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX; Juror Dr. Phillip A. Townsend, Curator of Art, Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) and Lecturer in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin
"Texas National 2025," The Cole Art Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX; Juror Susie Kalil
2024 “Solastalgia,” Flickinger Fine Arts Center, San Jacinto College, Houston, TX; curated by Cathie Kayser and Ellen H. Ray
“The Big Show,” Lawndale Arts Center, Houston, TX; Juror Laura Augusta
"Luck of the Draw: Ecosystem," DiverseWorks, Houston, TX
"Texas National 2024," The Cole Art Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX; Juror Peter S. Briggs
2023 “Wilderness,” Kinder Morgan Exhibition Series, Houston TX
"Pink," Kinder Morgan Exhibition Series, Houston, TX
“Glassell Printmaking Students: 2018-2022,” Glassell School of Art, MFAH, Houston TX
2021 “Ab-Raum,” Kulturebahnhof, Leipzig Germany
2019 "Tiny Pricks Project," SPEEDWELL Projects, Portland, Maine
"Tiny Sketchbook Project," The Other Art Fair, London, UK and Sloe Gallery, Paris, France
"Texas Vignette Art Fair," Dallas, TX, Juror Leslie Moody Castro
“Great” mobiles Ausstellungs, Kulturbahnhof, Leipzig, Germany
2018 "New Texas Talent 2018," Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX, Juried by Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas (CADD)
"Fifth Annual Artspace111 Regional Juried Exhibition," Artspace111, Fort Worth TX, Juror Christina Rees, Editor-in-Chief, Glasstire
"Texas Vignette Art Fair," Dallas, TX, Jurors Erin Murphy, Jessie Moncrief, and Dee Lara
“Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2018,” Houston, TX; Juror Anna Katz, Assistant Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
“Glasstire Party: Houston Edition,” auction artist; selected by Rainy Knudsen, Founder/Publisher, Glasstire
2017 "Art on the Avenue Juried Exhibition," Winter Street Studios, Houston, TX; Juror Paul Davis, Curator of Collections at the Menil Collection
“Collectors Club Cycle VII,” Project Row Houses, Houston TX, selection by Ryan Dennis, Project Row Houses Art Director & Curator
“The Big Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX; Juror Toby Kamps, Director of the Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
2017 "Rørpost Collaboration Project," City Hall, Houston, TX
2016 "Art on the Avenue Juried Exhibition," Winter Street Studios, Houston, TX; Juror Jennie Ash, Visual Arts Director, Art League Houston
“Rørpost Collaboration Project," Art Car Museum, Houston, TX, Arier Gammeltorv at UCSyd, Esbjerg, Denmark, and City Hall, Esbjerg , Denmark
2015 "596 Miles," International Women's Foundation, Marfa, TX
"Art on the Avenue Juried Exhibition," Winter Street Studios, Houston, TX; Juror Christine Jelson West, Executive Director Lawndale Arts Center
2014 Certificate Exhibition, Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
2011 "Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2012," Houston TX; Juror Robin Clark, Curator of Contemporary Art at San Diego Museum of Art
2009 “Rock, Scissors, Paper,” Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston TX; curated by Lisa Qualls, artist
“Prismattak,” Domy-Houston; curated by Lisa Marie Godfrey, artist
2008 “The Big Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX; Juror Aram Moyashedi, Curator, LA><ART, Los Angeles, CA
“Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2008,” Juror Dr. Kevin Salatino, Department Head and Curator of Prints and Drawings, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
2007 “Red Hot Group Show,” Darke Gallery, Houston TX
“The Big Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX; Juror Rita Gonzalez, Assistant Curator, Special Exhibitions, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
“Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2007,” Houston TX; Juror Carter Foster, Curator of Drawings, The Whitney Museum, New York NY
2006 “The Big Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX; Juror Dominic Molon, Pamela Alper Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago IL
2005 “The Big Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX; Juror Michael Olijnyk, Curator of Exhibitions for The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh PA
AWARDS AND HONORS
2024 Finalist, Wendy Wagner Foundation Spring Trio Creative Grant
2019 “The International Painting Annual 9” selected artist, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2018 Winner, Second Place, “Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art 2018”, Houston, TX
2017 Winner, “The Big Show”, Lawndale Art Center, Houston TX
2011 Winner, Open Press Studios Western United States Competition (New American Paintings)
2008 Runner-up, Open Studios Press Western United States Competition (New American Paintings)
2006 Winner, Open Press Studios Western United States Competition (New American Paintings)
RESIDENCIES
2021 Visiting Artist, Russell Farm Art Center, Burleson, TX
2009 Summer Studio Resident Artist, Project Row Houses, Houston TX
PRESS
2025 “The Big Show 2025,” The Great God Pan is Dead, Robert Boyd
2017 “Toby Kamps’ Big ‘Big Show’”, Glasstire, Michael Bise
2017 “Ringers at Lawndale's 'The Big Show': Can you spot them?” The Houston Chronicle, Molly Glentzer
“Top Five: November 29, 2018”, Glasstire, Brandon Zech and guest Henry G. Sanchez
2009 Six Shows at Box 13, The Great God Pan is Dead, Robert Boyd
2009 Capsule Art Reviews, “Prismattak”, Houston Press, March, 11, 2009
PUBLICATIONS
2024 "The Hand Magazine", Issue 44, Prairie Village, KS
2024 Solastalgia Exhibition Catalog
2019 The International Painting Annual 9, Manifest Galler, Cincinnati, OH
2011 "New American Paintings Juried Exhibition in Print, No. 96"
"Rock, Scissors, Paper," Lisa Qualls
2008 AAOS “Emotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art” project
2006 New American Paintings Juried Exhibition-in-Print, No. 66”
SELECT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2025 Guest Instructor, Houston Botanic Garden, "Introduction to Nature Journaling, Coastal Prairie Garden Focus"
“Big Slide Show” artist talk, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
Houston Chapter of Native Prairies Association of Texas (HNPAT): Chapter Officer/Secretary
2024 Artist Panel Discussion, “Solastalgia,” San Jacinto College South Gallery, Houston, TX
Artist talk, “Big Slide Show,” Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX
Artist talk, “Can’t See the Forest,” Houston Art League, Houston, TX
2021-26 Native Plant Society of Texas employee: State Technical Coordinator/Administrative Assistant
Texas Master Naturalist-Gulf Coast Chapter Member
2018-26 City of Houston Artist Pool Member: Mini Murals Program Artist
2018 Artist Talk, “News vs. Nature (Gulf),” Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2014 Instructor, Special Topics in Art Education - Encaustic Painting, MFAH, Houston TX
2009 Temporary Part-Time Apprentice Junk Dealer, Bill’s Junk, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Houston TX
2008-9 Box 13 ArtSpace Resident Artist, 2008 Board Member/Secretary
COLLECTIONS
Kulturbahnhof e.V., Leipzig, Germany
International Women’s Foundation, Marfa, TX
Private collections in Texas, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania
BIO
Dendrophile Renata Lucia grew up amid forests and woodlands of the Columbia Bottomlands along the Texas Gulf Coast, which provide the roots of her ecological artworks. Being enclosed by trees and surrounded by books were two safe spaces from her youth, while string instruments provided a soothing soundtrack.
She worked as a classically-trained, professional violist in the 1980’s and ‘90s, followed by a career in technical writing. After a chondrosarcoma diagnosis in 2000, she took her first art class when she joined the Glassell School of Art, MFAH. She became the first trained artist in her family of outsider artists when she graduated from there with a Painting specialization.
During the covid-19 pandemic, Renata Lucia became a naturalist, joining the local chapters of the Texas Master Naturalists and the Native Plant Society of Texas, and obtained employment in the state office of the later. She later joined a plein air painting group exploring her childhood ecoregion. This reconnection with nature and local ecological processes, as well as the dread of on-going climate change are reflected in evocative landscape paintings, drawings, prints, and explorations of alternative materials.
Her work has been featured in The Hand Magazine, Manifest Gallery’s International Painting Annual 9 Exhibition-in-Print, and twice in the periodical New American Paintings. She has been a resident artist at Houston’s Project Row Houses and Burleson’s Russell Farm Art Center, and an award winner at the Lawndale Big Show and the Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art exhibition.
She lives in Houston, TX and works out of her home studio in the Sharpstown area.