Biography
Biography – Tessa Teixeira
Tessa Teixeira was born in 1969, in Ermelo, South Africa. She completed a Bachelor’s in Primary Education, majoring in Art, in 1991 through the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and her self-portrait at the time, was kept by the Arts Department.
In her twenties and thirties, after having backpacked for a year in Israel and Europe she returned to South Africa and formed an NGO, “The Joint Community Schools projects” and raised the funds to build two primary schools in Mpumalanga, Witbank for children to attend school in disadvantaged communities in the area. She at the time worked extensively in the low cost housing sector, positioning and driving the marketing efforts required to develop the first racially integrated housing projects in Middelburg and Witbank in Mpumalanga. She also worked in Johannesburg with Stocks n stocks on their housing projects in Pumula, Vosloorus. Thereafter she worked with The Mineworkers Development Agency, the rural development arm of The National Union of Mineworkers, in mostly addressing, facilitating initiatives in the craft sector. She created artwork on an ad hoc, private basis, throughout this period.
In 2006 she facilitated Adult Art workshops at her private studio in Parktown North in Johannesburg. She enrolled at Wits University again, for a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 2010, after she hosted her first exhibition “Should I go or should I stay” in 2009. She was accepted at Wits, but then after three months had to move to San Francisco for her husband’s career. She took the opportunity to attend short Art programs at The San Francisco Academy of Arts University and The University of California, Berkeley Extension in 2010. She moved to London after 9 months, and again took the opportunity to attend various short programs at Central St Martins, The Heatherley School of Fine Arts, and The Princes Drawing School in 2011.
She returned to Johannesburg in 2011, and has been focused on developing her Art professional practice, focused on Painting, Mixed media, Installation and Printing.
She exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2012 and in 2013 at the FNB JoburgArtfair in Open call selected group shows with Artistproof studio’s, and was selected in 2013 by the JOBURG FRINGE Jury, which included Internationally recognized South African Artist Frances Goodman & curator Melissa Goba, to exhibit at the 2013 JoburgFringe. She has attended Monotype Printing workshops in 2013 and in 2014 with master printer Mark Attwood, producing the prints for her ‘What is it like?’ (2013) and “# Denial of Death (2015) body of works. She has worked with master Lithographic Printmaker Leshoka Legate to produce her current Lithographic Edition series that is part of the “# Denial of Death (2015) body of work. She is currently producing an Etching Edition with Artist Proof Studios.
