Biography

tania_marmolejo_bioTania Marmolejo Andersson was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1975). Influenced by her Scandinavian and Caribbean heritage, she studies Graphic Design and Illustration in Norway and returns to the Dominican Republic to study Fine Arts at the Altos de Chavón School of Design.

In 1998 she received the Bluhdorn Scholarship and continued her studies at Parsons The New School for Design in New York, graduating from Fine Arts and Illustration in 2000.

She begins her artistic career as an illustrator for the fashion and lifestyle sections of Obsidiana magazine (New York). During these years, she also designs characters and backgrounds for MTV, PBS, Hyperion/Disney, and Scholastic Books as part of the Data Motion Arts studio’s animation team, receiving various ASIFA and CINE awards.

In 2005 she joined the group of artists at MadArts Studios in Brooklyn, NY, and District and Co. Gallery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where she participated in several group exhibitions, focusing entirely on developing her artistic career along with design. Since then, her work has been exhibited in numerous collective national and international exhibitions, several Iberoamerican Art Salons in Washington DC, representing the Dominican Republic, as well as in international art fairs such as Context Art Miami during Art Basel and Pinta NY, represented by Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery; and SCOPE 2016, Miami Beach, represented by Azart Gallery.

She has also designed textiles for the L’Amour by Nanette Lepore line for JC Penney and Nicole Miller Intimates, among others, and an artistic tile collection for Aguayo Tiles in The Dominican Republic.

Marmolejo was selected to represent the Dominican Republic with her textile designs at the Fourth and Sixth Ibero-American Design Biennial (BID) in Madrid, Spain, in 2014 and 2018. The Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño (BID), organized by DIMAD every two years at Central de Diseño in Matadero Madrid, is “the foremost gathering point for professionals and institutions of design in Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.”

Her artwork has been displayed as part of important national cultural campaigns in the Dominican Republic, like the household name Cerveza Presidente campaign “Celébralo con Orgullo” (Celebrate with pride) in 2020.

Important Dominican magazines and institutions have recognized her as a remarkable contemporary artist. She is part of the book “Dominicanas fuera de serie. 150 mujeres que transformaron la República Dominicana” (Dominicans out of the charts. 150 women who transformed the Dominican Republic), by Geraldine de Santis, 2021.

She is the author of the books:

Marmolejo is also the illustrator of a children book series ‘Tales of the biosphere reserve’ on the fauna and flora of Hispaniola and the national parks in the Dominican Republic: “Pedrito y el cacaotal”, “Tambor y misterio”, “Cuando el viento habla”, “¡Es la tierra más hermosa que ojos jamás hayan visto!”, y “Chicui corazón de joya”.

She resides in New York, where she is devoted full-time to her artistic practice.


Selected Exhibitions

Selected Solo Shows

  • 2023  What Was Saved from the Fire, Jun 1st-Jul 8th. Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2023   Under the Influence, May 4th-Jun 3rd. Villazan Gallery, Madrid, Spain
  • 2023   Alter Egos, March 10th-30th. Eligere Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
  • 2022   Master and Commander, Dec. 8th-Jan. 3rd. Volery Gallery, Dubai International Financial Center, United Arab Emirates
  • 2022   The Dream and The Voyage, Sept. 1st-Oct. 1st. Centre of International Contemporary Art (CICA), Vancouver, Canada
  • 2022   As Far As Your Eyes Can See, Sept. 1st-2nd. Eligere Gallery, solo showcase at Kiaf PLUS, South Korea
  • 2022   Telenovela Life, June 9th-July 2nd. GR Gallery, New York
  • 2021   Untamed Truths, December 9th-January 30th. Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art, Dominican Republic
  • 2021   Anacaona’s Revenge, September 15th-November 30th. Eligere Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
  • 2020  Santas y Tígueras, Feb. 1st-April 30th. Museo Cándido Bidó, Bonao, Dominican Republic
  • 2018   (In Between), October 6th-October 28th. Galleri Nord-Norge, Harstad, Norway
  • 2018   Here Versus There, April 13th-May 30th. Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art, New York, NY
  • 2015   What was I thinking? September 10-October 10th. Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art, Dominican Republic
  • 2013   Delicious Torment, July 18th-August 18th. Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art, Dominican Republic
  • 2012   The Awakening, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, Texas
  • 2011   Toxic Longings, Sensei at Panda Gallery, New York, NY

Selected Collective Exhibitions

  • 2023   Immaculate Heart of Margaritaville. Curated by Devendra Banhart. Nicodim, May 20 – July 22, 2023, Los Angeles, California
  • 2023   Maternity Leave: None of Women Born. Presented by Nicodim in collaboration with the Green Family Art Foundation. Atelier Flora, April 18–23, Dallas, Texas
  • 2023   Here. Nicodim Gallery, Felix Art Fair, February 15th-January 19th, Los Angeles, California
  • 2022   The Power to Dream (curated by James Bolton), with Eve Ackroyd; James Bolton; Lindsey Bull; Dante Cannatella; Nicolas Coleman; Claudio Coltorti; Claire Fahys; Barry McGlashan; Alice Grenier Nebout; Sally J. Han; Aly Helyer; Jean Julien; Karyn Lyons; JJ Manford; Tania Marmolejo; Sabine Moritz; and Torben Ribe. Galerie Hussenot, November 17th-January 14th, Paris, France
  • 2022   You Me Me You, Nicodim Gallery, September 3rd-October 29th, Los Angeles
  • 2022  Amy Worrall | Ekaterina Popova | Tania Marmolejo, Cohle Gallery, Jan. 6th-Jan. 29th, Paris, France
  • 2021   Summer Camp, GR Gallery, July 22th-August 20th,  New York, New York
  • 2021   Vibraciones Conteporáneas, Lyle O. Reitzel Contemporary Art, Aug. 5th-Sept. 25th,  Dominican Republic
  • 2017   CONTEXT, Art Miami, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, December 5th-10th,  Miami, FL
  • 2017   Dialogue, Azart Gallery, Sept 28th-October 14th,  Chelsea, New York
  • 2017   22 on Tour, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, March 23rd-April 25th,  Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • 2016   SCOPE Miami Beach, Azart Gallery/ArtLeadHer booth F33, Miami Beach, FL
  • 2016   ARTWALK NY, Collective auction/ Benefiting Coalition for the Homeless, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York, NY
  • 2012   CONTEXT, Art Miami, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, Miami, FL
  • 2012   Extraordinary 5, Cafeina Wynwood Art Center, Miami, FL
  • 2011   Super Heavy, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • 2011   Hyperboreans, Dacia Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2011   Enigmatic Visions, William Bennett Gallery, Soho, New York
  • 2011   PINTA ART FAIR 2011, The Modern & Contemporary Latinamerican Art Fair, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, New York
  • 2011    Superheroes, Casita Maria Center, New York
  • 2010   PINTA ART FAIR 2010, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, NewYork
  • 2010   Veuve Cucaracha: A Contemporary Art Homage to Pura Belpre, LES & Abrazo Interno Gallery/The Clemente, New York, NY
  • 2010   Híbridos, Arte Dominicano, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York
  • 2009   XVIII IBERO-AMERICAN ART SALON, Katzen Art Center, Washington DC
  • 2008   ART COLLISION, Traveling Art Exhibit, San Francisco, CA
  • 2008   XVII IBERO-AMERICAN ART SALON, Katzen Art Center, Washington DC
  • 2007   Femenino Subterráneo, District & Co., Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • 2006   THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES Show & Exhibition, Columbia Presbyterian, New York
  • 2006   MAD ARTS SPRING SHOW, MadArts Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • 2005   MAD ARTS WINTER SHOW, MadArts Gallery Brooklyn, New York
  • 2005   Suite Quisqueya: New Dominican Painting, District & Co. Opening Exhibition, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • 2005   MADARTS FALL SHOW, MadArts Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
  • 2005   PARK SLOPE STUDIO TOUR OPENING EXHIBIT, MadArts Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

Selected Talks & Panels

  • 2021    WOMEN AND THE CHANGING FACE IN ART. TEDxLaRomana. How female artists and their participation in art have been marginalized throughout history, and how and why this is changing today. This is a personal recount of how the artist has navigated the art world, adding her story to these optimistic, changing times through perseverance and always painting her truth. Painter, illustrator, textile designer, visual communicator, graphic animator, doodler, and author. When visually expressing emotions, experiences, and a profoundly insightful perspective of life, one can hardly find someone more authentic and vivid than Tania and her work. Her combined Dominican and Swedish ancestry and identity give her a unique edge in aesthetics and cosmopolitan views with a fresh and colorful expression. Yet, her work remains fully grounded and close to practical and essential topics ranging from children’s education, women’s role in society, and our commitment to the environment.

  • 2013    STOREFRONT FOR ART AND ARCHITECTURE. Launching Storefront International Series Dominican Republic, in New York, NY. Storefront kicked off the Storefront International Series with Storefront IS Dominican Republic, which took place from June 25th – June 30th, 2013. This launch event gathered Dominican/New Yorkers with performances, toasts, manifestos, poems, images, and more. The event aimed to inform, open up and simultaneously frame the conversations and events during the first Storefront IS event in the Dominican Republic. Event participants included Josefina Baez, Gerard Ellis, Quisqueya Henríquez, Claudia Herasme Alfonso, Tania Marmolejo, and Gustavo Rodriguez.

Beware of Strangers of the Persuasive Kind

“…Tania Marmolejo’s work mixes those rare qualities of beauty and mystery, modernity and timelessness, and exceeds this vanguard breeze with a very contemporary approach. Her vibrant palette of red, ocher, and gold has the warmth of the sun after a snowstorm, and has the intensity of Egon Schiele passed through a filter of Manga. This is not a simple sum of influences, but a new visual otherness.

…Indeed, innocence and seduction – or the seduction of innocence-, are pillars of her work; the intensive energy of her paintings owing to the tension between those pseudo opposites.”

Joaquin Badajoz
Art Critic The Miami Herald. North American Academy of The Spanish Language (ANLE)


“There is something oddly familiar yet distinctly unsettling about Tania Marmolejo’s enigmatic works.”

“The peculiar viewing angle and close-up cropping of her figure evokes both the claustrophobic ways in which young girls are often corseted by their parents and their consequent anxiety and emotional unease upon coming of age.

…With their innocent features and inscrutable expressions, Marmolejo’s quixotic creatures can convey complex emotions ranging from vulnerability to defiance or even regret. For Marmolejo, who adroitly combines technical precision with a vision at once beautiful and disquieting, it’s the viewer who becomes implicated as a voyeur of her dreamy narratives while witnessing the subtle struggles implicit in her works.”

Carlos Suarez De Jesus
Art Critic