ARTIST BIO / CV
My work spans paintings, sculptures, assemblages, and public installations — experiential, participatory, and site-specific — all rooted in a raw, authentic examination of the messy, complicated, and often ridiculously ironic beauty of the human experience.
Born in Inglewood, California to conservative, working-class parents and raised in El Paso, Texas, my formative years were shaped by oppressive, limiting beliefs at odds with my big-hearted nature. A deep desire for connection — accentuated by moving cities an average of every four years — runs through the work as recurring themes of place, belonging, and what it means to feel at home in yourself.
Fascinated by advertising from an early age, I built a career learning how to move large groups of people through entertainment and persuasion. Warhol, Holzer, Kruger, Koons, and Ruscha became touchstones as I began drawing on the art world to inform award-winning campaigns for iconic brands — first as a copywriter, then as an international Creative Director and agency founder.
Eventually I turned that same gift toward something larger. Using advertising's tools to tell deeper truths, I began imagining humanity as my client — culture-jamming collective experience into campaign-like collections that sell nothing except the things advertising has always promised but never delivered: connection, belonging, joy. My first solo exhibition, Upon Hearing the #News, drew from emotional responses to the flood of absurd headlines in 2016 — 100 visceral expressions painted over 172 days.
Since then the work has continued to evolve alongside my own journey. What I now call heartivism — art centered on connection, belonging, and our shared humanity — drives everything. Completing an Advanced Certificate in Spiritual Psychology in 2023 deepened that direction, clarifying my role not just as someone who questions the world through creativity, but as someone committed to helping heal it.
Drawing on pop, street, folk, and punk aesthetics, my work transmutes the trauma and pain of our world into expressions of joy, hope, and recognition. My wish is that it moves others to seek out their own imperfect truths — finding everything advertising has always tried 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
2026 Group Exhibition, Affordable Art Fair, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Native Species, Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX
2025 Group Exhibition, Word Play, Black Box Gallery, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, The People’s Art, Satellite Gallery, NYC, NY
Group Exhibition, SMST ‘25, MotherShip Studios, San Marcos, TX
2024 Juried Exhibition, IAA/USA Member Group Show, Los Angeles, CA/Online
Juried Exhibition, Members Only, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
Group Exhibition, Come on Back Now & Again, Central Machine Works, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, WEST/EAST, Canopy Studios, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, LRG Brew Art Show, Los Ruano Gallery Pop-Up, Long Beach, CA
Group Exhibition, The Other Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
Solo Exhibition, Read The Room, Lockhart Post-Gallery, Lockhart, TX
Group Exhibition, Common Ground, Downtowner Gallery, Round Rock, TX
Group Exhibition, Inter Being, Co-Lab Projects, Austin, TX
Group Exhibition, Lockhart Post-Gallery, Lockhart, TX
Group Exhibition, Wig Out, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, TX
Solo Exhibition, Untitled, Chaparral Coffee, Lockhart, TX
Group Exhibition, Goddess, Reeves Art + Design, Houston, TX
Solo Exhibition, All Together Now, K Space Contemporary, Corpus Christi, 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
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
2025 An Inspired Chat with Chad Rea of Lockhart, Voyage Austin, Sept 24, 2025
Cult of Happy: An Art-Led Joy Rebellion in Small-Town Texas That Reimagines What a Gallery Can Be, Creative Discourse, Sept 7, 2025
Lockhart’s Cult of Happy: Where art, community and joy converge,Lockhart Post-Register, July 16, 2025
The Cult of Happy, 78644 podcast, June 24, 2025
Cult of Happy, What We Know, What We Don’t podcast, Mar 18, 2025
Chad Rea: A Tie Where Everybody Wins, I Explore Art, May 22, 2025
2024 Rising Stars: Meet Chad Rea, Voyage Austin, June 25, 2024
Chad Rea, LockhART HOUSE, Breaking Out, May 22, 2024
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
2021-22 Micro Galleries Member
2018-19 Almost Real Things Advisor
TEACHING
2014-19 Full-Time Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Texas, Austin, TX
2002-06 Part-time Instructor, ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA