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Carmen Lomas Garza

born 1948 Kingsville, Texas; lives San Francisco, California

BiographyKnown for her illustrations, paintings, ofrendas, and papel picado that celebrate her Mexican American heritage and family, Carmen Lomas Garza was born in Kingsville, Texas, in 1948. She grew up watching her mother paint and helping her grandmother create embroidery patterns. Inspired by her parent’s activism with the American G.I. Forum, Garza joined the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. She earned a BS in art education from Texas Arts & Industry University 1972, a Master in education from Juarez-Lincoln/Antioch Graduate School in 1973, and a Master of Art from San Francisco State University in 1981 where she focused on lithography and painting in oil and gouache. Garza is a recipient of numerous awards, such as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has exhibited her work in galleries and museums across the United States including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is also an author-illustrator of bilingual children’s books.

Person TypeIndividual