Artist Bio
Danielle Sierra is a visual artist from the small rural farming town of Avenal in California. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Painting at California State University, Fresno. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the University of Memphis in 2022 with her thesis titled A Study in Glory. Danielle has exhibited in numerous art shows and exhibitions. Her most recent solo show, Supernatural Telescope, took place at Crosstown Arts in 2025. She has participated in group shows, notably the Was God Dead Invitational at Union University in 2025, Who is that Artist/Quien es esa Artista? at The Dixon Gallery and Gardens in 2024, Here to Stay at L Ross Gallery in 2018, and Estamos Aqui at the Nashville Library Gallery in 2016.
Danielle has been artistically vocal in celebrating people of color by participating in shows featuring Latino artists and creating murals for institutions and neighborhoods that focus on the people who make up the communities in which they exist. Danielle has worked with the Urban Art Commission of Memphis and was trained by Mural Arts Philadelphia in the mural arts. She has produced three large-scale murals in Memphis for the Bickford Community Center, the Four Way Restaurant, and the Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis, as well as an expansive vinyl window art installation at the Ed Rice Community Center.
Danielle’s work was initially equipped by her artist father, Ernie Sierra, as a child. She continues to make art in honor of his memory by continuing to explore wonder and flex her “artistic license”. Her art is inspired by the beauty found in the diversity of human beings and God, the creator. She combines the human figure with organic, architectural, and floral elements to convey allegorical meaning focused on biblical themes relevant in a contemporary context. Danielle is the Assistant Professor of Art for Drawing and Painting in the Art Department at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.
CV
Education
University of Memphis - Memphis, Tennessee
Master of Fine Arts - Painting
August 2019 - May 2022
California State University, Fresno - Fresno, California
Bachelor of Fine Arts - Studio Art with a concentration in painting
August 2006 - May 2010
Teaching & Lectures
Union University - Assistant Professor
August 2024 - Present | Memphis, Tennessee
Drawing and Painting
Contemporary Arts Memphis - Drawing Instructor
2022 - 2025 Fellowship Years | Memphis, Tennessee
Dual Enrollment Drawing I course
The University of Memphis - Adjunct Professor
August 2020 - 2024 | Memphis, Tennessee
Courses: Drawing I, Drawing II
Memphis Arts Moot - Session Speaker
2023 and 2025 | Memphis, Tennessee
River Arts Fest - Master Artist Workshop Leader
2023 Festival Year | Memphis, Tennessee
Dixon Gallery and Gardens - Artist Lecture
2023 Munch and Learn Series | Memphis, Tennessee
Harding Academy - Guest Lecturer
2022 Harding Academy Middle and Upper School | Memphis, Tennessee
Related Experience
2025 LatinX Committee
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art | Memphis, Tennessee
2024 Art Museum of the University of Memphis - Strategic Planning Committee
University of Memphis | Memphis, Tennessee
2023 Scholastic Art Awards - Art Juror
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art | Memphis, Tennessee
2023 Crosstown Arts Residency
Crosstown Arts | Memphis, Tennessee
2018 District Mural Project Fellow
Mural Arts Philadelphia | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Urban Art Commission | Memphis, Tennessee
Exhibitions
2025 “Was God Dead - Inivitational Collective Creative” • Union University • Jackson, TN
2025 “Supernatural Telescope” solo exhibition • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2024 “Union Faculty Exhibition” • Cedarville University • Cedarville, OH
2024 "Soli Deo Gloria" Short film • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2023 “Who is that Artist/Quien es esa Artista?” • The Dixon Gallery & Gardens
2022 “The Fourth Kind” (Thesis Exhibition) • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2019 “Mi Gente” (Solo) • Latino Memphis • Memphis, TN
2017 “An Artform of Worship 2” • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2017 “Here to Stay” • L Ross Gallery • Memphis, TN
2016 “An Artform of Worship” • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2016 “Belongings 2” • Crosstown • Memphis, TN
2016 “Estamos Aqui” • Nashville Public Library • Nashville, TN
2015 “Mi Sur” • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2015 “Belongings” • Crosstown Arts • Memphis, TN
2014 “Of Beasts, Birds, and Flowers”(Solo) • Eclectic Eye • Memphis, TN
2013 “Remnant” (Solo) • Harrell Theater for Performing Arts • Collierville, TN
2012 “If I Can Dream” • Memphis Brooks Museum of Art • Memphis, TN
Public Art
Ed Rice Community Center Mural and Window Art
February 2022 - Present
The Ed Rice Community Center - Memphis, TN
The Historic Four-Way Restaurant Mural
August 2021 - January 2022
The Fourway Restaurant - Memphis, TN
The Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music Mural
May 2020 - January 2020
The University of Memphis Theatre Building - Memphis, TN
Bickford Community Center Mural - The District Mural Program
March 2018 - November 2019
The Bickford Community Center - Memphis, TN
Press
The Memphis Flyer, Supernatural Telescope, 2025
Memphis Voyager, Local Story, 2025
Circling, Danielle Sierra Creates Worlds, 2024
US Catholic Magazine, Winter 2019
The Memphis Flyer, An Artform of Worship, 2017
The Nashville Public Library Estamos Aqui Catalog, January 2016
Awards
Graduate School Purchase Award/ Dixon Gallery and Gardens Award 2021
39th Annual Juried Student Exhibition | The University of Memphis • Memphis, Tennessee
Art Department Graduate Award 2020 | 38th Annual Juried Student Exhibition
The University of Memphis • Memphis, Tennessee
Honorable Mention 2012 | If I Can Dream
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art • Memphis, Tennessee
Best in Show 2009 | Utopia
