Tessa Mars b. 1985, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; lives in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and San Juan Puerto Rico

Tessa Mars is a Haitian visual artist who explores gender, landscape, migration, and spirituality in relation to Haitian history. Working primarily in painting and papier maché, the artist takes distance from colonial narratives to reconnect to a Haitian perspective of the world and embrace other forms of collective belonging.

Mars received a BFA from Rennes 2 University in France in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions at Casa del Lago in Mexico City, Mexico; Le Centre d’Art as well as the French Institute, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and has participated in collective exhibitions at Tiwani Gallery, London, UK; Denver Art Museum, CO; Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, Basel, Switzerland; the 10th Berlin Biennale, Germany; the Ateliers ’89, Oranjestad, Aruba; Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; 30th International Symposium of Contemporary Art of Baie-Saint-Paul, Canada; and the Haitian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Mars is an alumna of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.