Cressandra Thibodeaux was born in 1966 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but raised mostly in the South. Her artistic practices include writing, photography, video, and performance. When she was eighteen her father, Millard Thomas, gave her, his Pentax K1000. He was passionate about two things: photography and music. He was Harry Belafonte’s guitarist and he used to say, “We are the songs we sing.” To Cressandra, she is images she creates. She uses the visual arts as an instrument for understanding the world she lives in, self-reflection and self-expression.
In 2010, she founded 14 Pews, a microcinema, located in an old church in Houston, Texas. Because of 14 Pews, she has become a community leader and activist. As Executive Director, she has curated over 900 films, 11 art shows and directed five award-winning documentaries on Houston artists. Her cultural events have a strong community engagement component, because she collaborate with other artists, activists, academics and non-profit organizations.
At the moment, her artistic influences are: Dawoud Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Hendrik Kerstens, Wendy Red Star, Richard Avedon, Barbara Kruger and Titus Kaphar. During COVID, she took studio portraits of her mom after her mother almost died from COVID and began her slow descent into dementia. Cressandra felt their time was precious and needed a way to engage. In her photo series Portraits of My Mother, Cressandra explored notions of beauty, ageism and our flawed medical system.
Her photo series, Shadow Projections was inspired by the Jungian theory — our Shadow Selves. At the art opening, the Executive Director, Sean Fitzpatrick of The Jung Center spoke on the topic of our Shadow Selves.
Cressandra’s photography and video work has been exhibited at Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland, The G-Gallery, Houston, TX, Texas Contemporary Art Show, Houston, TX, Fotofest, Houston, TX, Lawndale Museum, Houston, TX, The Art Car Museum, Houston, TX, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX, Deborah Colton Gallery, Houston, TX, and Five Points Museum, Victoria, TX. She has also participated in two studio artist residencies at the McDowell Colony. Additionally, she has received numerous Individual Artist Grants from the Houston Arts Alliance in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Portraits of My Mother, G-Gallery, Houston, TX
2022 Shadow Projection Series, Fotofest 2022, 14 Pews, Houston, TX
2020 Rodeo Show, Quackenbushes Coffeehouse, Austin, TX
2019 My Box Series, Texas Contemporary Art Show, George R. Brown Center, Houston, TX
2018 My Box Series, G-Gallery, Houston, TX
1991 Catfight, Armandos, Houston, TX
1991 My Friends, Cafe Brioche, Houston, TX
1991 My Friends, River Oaks Theatre, Houston, TX
INVITATIONAL AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Learning Curve 15, Houston Center of Photography, Houston, TX
2023 Women by Women, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
2023 Politics of Sex, G-Gallery, Houston, TX
2022 Light Around the World, St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Houston, TX
2021 The Big Show, Lawndale Museum, Houston, TX
2021 The Art Car Museum Annual Group Show, Houston, TX
2020 28th Annual ArtCrawl, Mother Dog Studios, Houston, TX
2019 27th Annual ArtCrawl, Mother Dog Studios, Houston, TX
2018 Magnificent Seven, Texas Contemporary Art Show, George R. Brown Center, Houston, TX
2010 Oil on Water - BP Sucks, Art Basel Satellite Art Show, Basel, Switzerland
VIDEO INSTALLATIONS
2023 Nestor Topchy Documentary, Menil Collection, Houston, TX
2021 Jesse Lott Documentary, The Road So Far, Station Museum, Houston, TX
2021 Jesse Lott Documentary, Jesse Lott: Sense of Spirit, Deborah Colton, Houston, TX
2020 Jesse Lott Documentary, The Road So Far, Five Points Museum, Victoria, TX
FILMS (Director & Editor)
2020 Theremin Fever, 63-minute award-winning documentary
2019 Jesse Lott: Art & Activism, 27-minute award-winning documentary
2019 A World of Her Own, 11-minute award-winning documentary
2018 Dragonfly, 10-minute documentary
2017 Will and Nikki, 19-minute award-winning documentary
2017 Nestor Topchy, 21-minute documentary
2015 Jerry Makes Blood, 20-minute documentary
2015 Houston Collector, 18-minute documentary
2015 Puppet Fever, 20-minute documentary
2014 Houston Heights, 15-minute documentary
2012 Baja 1,000, 39-minute documentary
1997 Spamarama: The Movie, 65-minute feature film - graduate thesis at Columbia University
1995 Three Minutes of A Bus, 4-minute award-winning narrative film
1995 R&R, 9-minute award-winning narrative film
COMMERCIALS (Director & Editor)
2013 Houston Zoo, 3 documentary style commercials for the Houston Zoo
2003 Ballet Austin (won Silver Addy award)
2003 Austin Futon Company (won Silver Addy award)
2003 Dr. Woolf (won Silver Addy award)
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
2023 Houston Arts Alliance Grant, Let Creativity Happen
2023 Top 25 Scripts for SAVE THE CAT 2023, for my script “Bearheart”
2023 Finalists, NBC, for my script “Bearheart”
2023 Semifinalists, Page International Screenwriting Awards, for my script “Bearheart”
2023 Semifinalists, Stage 32 TV Drama Screenwriting Contest, for my script “Bearheart”
2022 Quarterfinalists, Academy Nicholls Fellowship, for my script “The Hanging Tree”
2022 Quarterfinalists, Vail Screenwriting Contest, for my script “The Hanging Tree”
2022 Semifinalists, Big Apple Film Festival, for my script “The Hanging Tree”
2021 LensCulture Portrait Awards
2020 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, Theremin Fever
2020 Best Documentary, WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, Jesse Lott
2020 Thin Line Film Festival, Denton, TX
2020 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2019 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2018 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2018 Rockefeller Travel Grant
2017 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2016 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2015 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2014 Houston Arts Alliance, Individual Artist Grant
2008 The Disney/ABC TV Writing Fellowship
2006 Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians (PLSI)
2005 First Place in the Creative Screenwriting Open
2003 Fox Diversity TV Writing Program
2002 Semifinalists in the Academy Nicholls Fellowship for my script “American Eagle”
2002 Semifinalist in the Chesterfield Fellowships for my script “American Eagle”
1997 Panasonic Student Scholarship for my graduate thesis “Spamarama, The Movie”
1997 Austin Film Society Grant for “Growing a Beard”
1997 Texas Filmmakers Showcase for” Three Minutes on the Bus” and “R&R”
LECTURES
2022 14 Pews and Houston Jung Center, Shadow Projections, Houston, TX
2020 Houston Art League Lecture, Creative Process, Houston, TX
2019 Gallery Talk, Texas Contemporary Art Show, George R. Brown Center, Houston, TX
2018 Gallery Talk, G-Gallery, Houston, TX
COLLECTIONS
Numerous private collections
RESIDENCIES
2018 Studio residency, McDowell Colony Residency, Peterborough, NH
1997 Studio residency, McDowell Colony Residency, Peterborough, NH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021 Nine Texans On How They Survived A Frozen Week, by Megan Kimble, Texas Observer, February 18, 2021
2020 It’s Gonna Take More Than a Pandemic, by Jef Rouner, Houston Chronicle, June, 2, 2020
2019 Meet the Woman Behind Houston’s Indie Movie Theater, by Andrew Dansby, Houston Chronicle, Dec.10, 2019
2019 Texas Contemporary Art Fair 101, by Catherine Anspon, PaperCity, October 10, 2019
2019 Where to Find Your Favorite Artists, by Susie Tommaney, Houston Press, October 7, 2019
2018 Cressandra Thibodeaux “My Box Art, by Jef Rouner, Houston Chronicle, August 1, 2018
2018 MyDolls Leak Intense New Song, by David Garrick, Houston Press, February 18, 2018
2017 Remains of His Day, by Molly Glentzer, Houston Chronicle, November 10, 2017
2016 Dialogues on Grace, by Wei-Huan Chen, Houston Chronicle, November 25, 2016
2016 Dialogues on Grace, by Natalie de la Garza, Broadway World, November 23, 2016
2016 Dialogues on Grace Workshop Performance, by Don Maines, Houston Chronicle, February 18, 2016
2016 Best Movie Theaters in Houston, by Clifford Pugh, Culturemap, March 15, 2016
2014 Good Vibrations, by Michael Hoinski, Texas Monthly, November 27, 2014
2013 Art House Rules, by Nancy Zastudil, Arts and Culture Magazine, August 16, 2013
2012 Reagan Seniors’ Films Spotlighted, by Don Maines, June 28, 2012
2011 Dancer Turns to Making, Writing and Showing Films, by Flori Meeks, August 16, 2011
2010 Day Trips, by Gerald E. McLeod, Austin Chronicle, November 26, 2010
2010 Bullied No More, by Michael Hoinski, Texas Monthly, November 25, 2010
2010 Looking For A Home for the Indie Films, by Louis Parks, Houston Chronicle, September 22, 2010