Tonya is a painter searching for an introspective painting process focused on methods that stifle impulse, embrace boredom, and forces self-awareness. Her obsessions with materiality are used to explore form and color as an echo of the present overlapping past moments. Lee has exhibited her work throughout the U.S. including Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, The Weatherspoon Museum of Art and J. Johnson Gallery. She was a resident at Penland School of Crafts (Winter Residency, 2017 & 2018, Penland, NC) and The Wooden Walls (2017, Asbury Park, NJ). She has an extensive background in higher and adult education which includes Instructor at Penland School of Crafts (2018 & 2017), Assistant Professor of Art Foundations at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (2010-16), and Adjunct Instructor in the Art and Design Department at Monmouth University (2012-17). She received a MFA degree in painting from the University of North Carolina – Greensboro. A native of Florida, she was raised on the salt of the Atlantic foam by a shark’s tooth hunter and a myth-maker. 

 

EDUCATION

 

MFA - Painting - University of North Carolina – Greensboro

BFA - Painting - University of North Florida      

BA - Art History - University of North Florida

Drawing Marathon - New York Studio School

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

 

2018 Maunderings, Monmouth University

2017 Indirect Constructs, FSCJ Kent Gallery

2017 Anything You Can Do, Parlor Gallery

2017 Terroir, Trident Arts

2017 Tonya D. Lee: Athinos, Tempe Digital

2016 Tachisme, D.M. Allison Gallery

2016 Inception, Tempe Digital

2015 Normal, Exhibit No. 9

2015 Sandbox, Palette Gallery 

2013 Tonya Lee: Recent Work, Volan

2011 All Smiles, Florida Mining Gallery

2010 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum

2010 Barrett Fiser & Tonya Lee, Florida State College at Jacksonville

2010 Super Wonderful Group Show, Super Wonderful Gallery

2008 Making Marks, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville

2007 Winter Selections, J. Johnson Gallery

2006 Elements, Jane Gray Gallery

2005 Tonya Lee: Recent Works, Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art 

2005 Ladies and Gentlemen: Miss Tonya Lee,The Gallery at Screen Arts 

2003 My Minor Place, Gallery L

2002 Manufactured Proximity, Revolution Mills

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GALLERY AFFILIATIONS

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Parlor Gallery

D.M. Allison

Davis Editions

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

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2019 Adjunct Instructor, Department of Visual & Performing Arts, Fairfield University

2018 Instructor, Color and Abstraction, Penland School of Crafts

2017 Instructor, Color and Abstraction, Penland School of Crafts

2012-present Adjunct Professor, Art & Design, Monmouth University

2016-present Instructor, Continuing Education, Brookdale Community College

2016 Studio Assistant, Drawing and Painting, Penland School of Crafts

2010-16 Assistant Professor, Art Foundations, Art Institute of Pittsburgh

2013-16 Subject Matter Expert, Color Theory

2009-10 Full Time Faculty, Foundations, Art Institute of Jacksonville

2009-10 Gallery Coordinator, Art Institute of Jacksonville

2007-09 Adjunct Professor Foundations & Graphic Design, Art Institute of Jacksonville

2002-06 Adjunct Fine Arts Instructor, University of North Florida