Terra Goolsby

Terra Goolsby is a Lecturer in the First-Year Core Program at the College of Fine Arts, University of Texas at Austin. A Texas-based Latinx multimedia artist and co-founder of Icosa Gallery, she creates sculpture, installation, and works on paper that interweave Mesoamerican and contemporary mythologies with cultural heritage exploration.

• Education:
  • MFA in Sculpture, Rhode Island School of Design (Presidential Scholar, 2008-2010)
  • BFA in Studio Art, University of Texas at Austin (Cum Laude, 2004)
  • Independent Study in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Brown University (2008)

Her practice employs transformative material processes (fire, casting, contortion) with porcelain, bone, fabric, and carbon to investigate shapeshifting narratives in Nahual mythology, cultural identity negotiation, and tactile reinterpretation of ancestral traditions. She has exhibited internationally at venues including Dallas Contemporary, Women and Their Work, and I-Park Foundation.

• Key Awards:
  • Visual Arts Grant, A3 Art Alliance Austin (2025)
  • Edward James Fellowship (2010)
  • Presidential Scholar, RISD (2008-2010)
  • Dimension Gallery Fellowship (2016-2017)

Recipient of multiple grants including City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Grant and Vermont Studio Center Residency, Goolsby continues to work from her Austin studio, blending personal memory with mythological frameworks through tactile sculptural deconstruction.