My paintings, sculptures, and digital works are a raw, authentic expression of the messy, complicated, and often ridiculously ironic beauty of the human experience. Blending themes of social commentary with transformative personal truths, my art invites the viewer into a space of presence and perspective of a world beyond right and wrong; one that connects us through our similarities instead of our differences.
Born in Inglewood, California to conservative, working-class parents and raised in El Paso, Texas, my formative years were characterized by oppressive, limiting beliefs that were at odds with my big-hearted nature. My deep desire for connection, accentuated by moving cities an average of every four years, is expressed through my art as themes of place (inner and outer) and belonging.
Fascinated by advertising from an early age, I excelled in a career that taught me how to influence large groups of people through entertainment and the art of persuasion. Warhol, Holzer, Krueger, Koons, and Ruscha became inspirations as I began drawing on (and collaborating with) the art world to inform my award-winning campaigns for iconic brands as a copywriter and international Creative Director.
After several collaborative art projects, I turned my gift of capturing the zeitgeist through pop culture and persuasion to activism as I began experimenting with more subversive ways to inspire positive change. Using the same process to create advertising, I started to imagine humanity as my client, culture-jamming collective truths into dynamic campaign-like collections that turned advertising techniques on their head to “sell” deeper human truths. My first solo exhibit titled “Upon Hearing the #News”, drew from a series of emotional responses to the endless flood of absurd news headlines of 2016 that catalyzed 100 visceral expressions painted over 172 days.
Since then, my work has continued to evolve along with my own personal journey. My juxtaposition of colorful and iconic imagery with cultural insights addresses honest, often hard-to-face inequities of our world while also inviting deeper introspection to motivate healing and inspired action.
Often paradoxical in nature, my works draw on pop, street, folk, and punk aesthetics to transmute the trauma and pain of our world into expressions of joy, connection, and hope. Inspired by my personal journey of healing, my wish is that my art will move others to seek out their own imperfect truths, finding all that advertising tries to sell, already present within themselves.
“Vivid and clever and nigh on unforgettable, whose succinct-as-fuck visual takes on our modern times will kick your eyes’ ass in a pleasurable fashion...
...Bold sensibility to personal works, rendering arch commentary on current events via creative gambits that strike like, oh, let’s say Banksy x Warhol, leaving modern follies in smoldering ruins.”
EDUCATION
1993 Bachelor of Arts in Advertising, Texas Tech University
2023 Advanced Spiritual Psychology, University of Santa Monica
EXHIBITIONS
2024 Solo Exhibition, All Together Now, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
Group Exhibition, Goddess, Reeves Art + Design, Houston, TX
2023 Curator/Group Exhibition, SILOED, Tank Town, Lockhart, TX
Solo Exhibition, Happy To Be Here, Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, Heartivism, Cloud Tree Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Take Me Home Tonight, Prizer Arts and Letters, Austin, TX
Juried Exhibition, Members Only, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX, Honorable Mention
2022 Curator/Group Exhibition, MEAT, LockhARTHOUSE, Lockhart, TX
Group Exhibition, w/ Patrick Puckett and Camille Woods, Commerce Gallery, Lockhart, TX
Group Exhibition, Sound & Vision, ARTUSCO, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Art Under $100 Show, Almost Real Things Gallery, Austin, TX
Juried Exhibition, TEXAS NOW 2022 Texas Artist Showcase, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX - Juror: Daisha Board
Group Exhibition, Volya, DORF, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Festo Fest, Northern-Southern, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, The Art House Open, LockhARTHOUSE, Lockhart, TX
2021 Group Exhibition, Project / Forward: 2048, Micro Galleries, Bangladesh, Colombia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy
Group Exhibition, Global Day of Creative Action, Micro Galleries, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, The Other Art Fair, Dallas, TX
Group Exhibition, Haunted, Native, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, 0-60: Five-Year Anniversary Exhibition, Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Group Exhibition, The Other Art Fair, Dallas, TX
Solo Exhibition, #TheGunShow, Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Group Exhibition, Let’s Talk, Downtowner Gallery, Round Rock, TX
2020 Group Exhibition, Shop Texas, Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Group Exhibition, EAST/WEST, Cartier Rimbaud Gallery, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, Destroy Something Beautiful, Link & Pin, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, The #Vote Show, Link & Pin, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, The Third Coast National Biennial, k space contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX - Juror: Rigo Luna
Group Exhibition, The Other Art Fair, Dallas, TX
Juried Exhibition, TEXAS NOW 2020 Texas Artist Showcase, Artspace111, Fort Worth, TX - Juror: Kristen Gaylord
Group Exhibition, Ao5 Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, WEST, Blue Genie, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Mystique, Dripping Springs, TX
2019 Group Exhibition, EAST, Cement Loop, Austin, TX
Juried Art Prize, Eyes Got It!, San Antonio, TX, Finalist, Jurors: Leslie Moody Castro, Hector Hernandez, and Alicia Emr
Group Exhibition, #BUYOLY20, Land Gallery, Portland, OR
Group Exhibition, I Heart Justice, 800 Congress, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Brushfire Collection, Soma Vida Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, WEST, Blue Genie, Austin, TX
2018 Group Exhibition, Wet, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, #TheGunShow, Lewis Carnegie Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, EAST, CR Gallery, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, Why The Long Face, Coco Robaire Gallery, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, Small Screen Zombies, Crabtree Roth Gallery, Austin, TX
Curator/Group Exhibition, Friending is Not Friendship, Cobalt Riesling Gallery, Austin, TX
Solo Exhibition, Upon Hearing the #News, GSD&M, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, WEST, Blue Genie, Austin, TX
2016 Solo Exhibition, TRUMPS, internet
2012 Group Exhibition, An Ounce of Power, Compound Gallery, Portland, OR
2011 Curator/Collaborative Project, Electricity Showroom, Open Space, Portland, OR
2003-07 Curator/Collaborative Project, Project Hello, Los Angeles, CA; Portland, OR; Park City, UT; and Black Rock City, NV
2003 Curator/Collaborative Project, Book Smarts, Los Angeles, CA and London, UK
PRESS
2023 Ad Chatter, AdPulp, Dec 30, 2023
Simplicity, Creative Mornings Austin, Sept 15, 2023
Best Visual Artist Caldwell County 2023, Lockhart Post-Register, Sept 13, 2023
Meet Chad Rea, Canvas Rebel, Aug 17, 2023
2021 Five-Minute Tours: Chad Rea at Presa House, San Antonio, Glasstire, May 18, 2021
2020 Meet Chad Rea: Artist, SHOUTOUT HTX, December 22, 2020
Top Nine in Visual Art of 2020, Plus One Exceptional Other, Austin Chronicle, December 18, 2020
Destroy Something Beautiful, Austin Chronicle, November 27, 2020
Meet The Others: Chad Rea, Saatchi Art, September 2, 2020
2019 Weight of the World, Screen Shot Magazine, Issue 4, July, 2019
USA: Dreams and Nightmares, Virginia Vallejo and Nicolás Sánchez O’Donovan,, RT Spanish, May 28, 2019
Meet Chad Rea, Voyage Houston, March 20, 2019
2018 Beyond the Bio: Chad Rea”, Art Alliance, September 25, 2018
Juxtaposition, Almost Real Things, Issue 11 & 12, September 1, 2018
AFFILIATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS
2023- International Association of Art Member
2021 Micro Galleries Member
2018-2019 Almost Real Things Advisor
TEACHING
2014-2019 Full-Time Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2002-2006 Part-time Instructor, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA