2025 MFA Thesis Exhibition

Teresa Guadalupe Olds’ work explores the intersections of personal mythology, spiritual transformation, and liminal spaces between past and present, reality and dream. Drawing from her Mexican heritage, religious symbolism, and esoteric practices, she creates visual narratives that blur the boundaries between suffering and transcendence, memory and reinvention. At the core of her practice is an engagement with healing, both personal and collective. Through oil painting, sculpture, and writing, she excavates emotional and spiritual landscapes, using vibrant color and surreal compositions to construct dreamlike worlds. Her work is a space of both confrontation and refuge, an intimate exploration of vulnerability, ritual, and metamorphosis. She approaches her practice as a space for both personal excavation and collective resonance, blending the seen and unseen, the past and the present. By merging historical influences with intuitive storytelling, she creates spaces that challenge perception and invite reflection on the forces, both mystical and psychological, that shape our lives. Deeply influenced by traditional art historical techniques, she reinterprets classical approaches through a contemporary, intuitive lens. In doing so, she invites the viewer into a moment of reflection, asking: What does it mean to transform? What parts of ourselves must we leave behind to truly see what lies ahead?

Teresa Guadalupe Olds is a multidisciplinary artist born in Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico, and based in New York City. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts with a minor in Art History from Ringling College of Art and Design and an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons. Her work spans painting, sculpture, photography, and writing, often drawing from her Mexican heritage, religious iconography, and personal mythology. Through vibrant color and surreal compositions, she explores transformation, liminality, and the interplay between reality and the subconscious. Her practice is rooted in traditional techniques, yet deeply engaged with contemporary themes of healing, ritual, and self-reclamation. Teresa has exhibited in galleries across Florida, New York City, and Mexico. Her work reflects a continuous dialogue between past and present, seen and unseen, inviting viewers into introspective, symbolic spaces that challenge perception and invite deeper reflection.