Jesse Amado

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, he received his BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin and his BFA and MFA from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Amado's choice of materials, including paint, wood, felt, and light, expands the dimensional constraints of painting. He attempts to produce commentaries on the ambiguities of modern and contemporary culture by utilizing forms, images, materials, fashions, and media. His work is grounded in his Mexican American heritage, South Texas aesthetics, and conceptual practices anchored in social realities, history, and politics. Amado is recognized as one of the pioneering conceptual Latino artists.

Amado’s work has been selected for numerous group and solo exhibitions, such as Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. He has been featured and reviewed in publications such as Artforum, Art in America, and Glasstire.

In 1995, he was selected by Robert Storr as the first recipient of the international residency program Artpace San Antonio, along with Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Annette Messager. Amado received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to attend Artist-in-Residence, Fabric Workshop, and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. He was awarded the International Artist-in-Residence Program of Gwangju, South Korea, and the 2016 Berlin Residency Program by Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in partnership with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.

Submitted by Ruiz-Healy Art