Tova Katzman is a photo and video artist, visual storyteller and educator. Her work combines documentary and experimental forms of storytelling and is informed by human geography, loss, the built environment and embodied research around bodies of water; resulting in photography, films and video installations.

In 2017, she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to pursue an art and research project on the intersection of daily life and the Panama Canal. She remained based in Panama for six years working as a freelance photographer, videographer, curator and educator as well as the co-founder of La Junta Colectiva, a collective for women photographers working in Panama. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Bloomberg, NBC News and Outside Magazine, among others.

Tova grew up within the year-round working-class community on Martha’s Vineyard Island off the coast of Massachusetts. She is currently based in Texas after receiving her MFA in Studio Art from The University of Texas at Austin.

📍 Austin, TX / able to travel
open to assignments // collaborations // conversations
speaks English + Spanish
~archival inkjet prints+artist made frames available~
**✉️ tovakatzman.studio@gmail.com**

Education

The University of Texas at Austin
- Master of Fine Arts, May 2025
- Photo and Media

Massachusetts College of Art and Design
- Bachelor of Fine Arts, May 2015
- Photography Major

Awards & Fellowships

AWAW Environmental Art Grants | New York Foundation for the Arts, 2026
Fulbright Art and Research Fellowship | Panama, 2017-18
Planet Texas 2050 Research Award | The University of Texas at Austin, 2025
Professional Development Travel Fund Award | The University of Texas at Austin, 2025
Russell Lee Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Photography | The University of Texas at Austin, 2024-2025

Solo Exhibitions

Mr. Brown’s Garden | The Canal Museum, Panama, 2026
Si caigo en el Canal, nada, nado | Papaya Planet Art Space, Panama, 2018

Selected Group Exhibitions

Experiments in Seeing | Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 2026 (forthcoming)
Words for Love | Northern-Southern Gallery, Austin, TX, 2025
Acceleration without Arrival | Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin, 2025
Ten Years of Estudio Nuboso | Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama, Panama City, 2025
The Buoyancy Show | Lemp Brewery Complex, St. Louis, MO, 2023
Remembered Technologies | TEOR/ética, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2023
SUELO: Bocas de Cenizas | Salón Nacional de Artistas, Barranquilla, Colombia, 2022
El Pasado Adelante | Spanish Cultural Center, Panama, 2022
Generación Igualdad | French Embassy, Panama, 2021
Quicken the Heart | Grid Gallery, Panama, 2020
Art and Science Lab | Ibero-America Design Biennial, Madrid, Spain, 2018
All Visual Boston | The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, 2015
Islands on the Edge | Atlantic Wharf Gallery, Boston, MA, 2015
Below the Sky, Above the Clouds | Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA, 2015
On Photography | Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA, 2015

Film Screenings

A veces isla | 47th CineFestival, San Antonio, Texas, 2026
A veces isla | Water Texas Film Festival, The Bullock Texas State History Museum, Austin, TX, 2026
Sometimes Island | WaterWork at Seaholm, The Trail Conservancy & Design Austin, Austin, TX, 2025
Fishing with Heri | Experimental Response Cinema’s Local Filmmakers’ Showcase, Hyperreal, Austin, TX, 2025
The Bittersweet Life of Mr. Brown | Flower Shop Art Space, Brownsville, TX, 2024

Curation

What Calls Us | La Junta Colectiva X The US Embassy in Panama, La Cinta Costera, Panama, 2022
Hasta aquí era agua | Casa Santa Ana X Diablo Rosso Gallery, Panama, 2021
La Espera | Grid Gallery, Panama, 2021
Between Shores: A Show on Water | Student Life Gallery, Massart, Boston, MA, 2015

Selected Public Speaking and Workshops

44th ILASSA Conference: Inventing the Near Future | The University of Texas at Austin, 2026
Artist Talk, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville, TX, 2024
At the Table: Empathy, Community, and Collaboration | Guest Critic, MassArt MFA program, 2024
Art in Dialogue With 100 Years of Tropical Science | Panel Discussion, Berlin Science Week, 2023
Live Radio Table | Panel Discussion, Salón Nacional de Artistas, Barranquilla, Colombia, 2022
Art in Public Spaces | Public Conversation, Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama, 2022
Photographic Evolution | Virtual workshop with Fran Herrera and La Junta Colectiva, 2022

Selected Press

Mi Diario, The secret garden now exhibited to the public as living memory, 2026
Arte al Día, The Value of Sovereignty in Mr. Brown’s Garden, 2026
La Estrella de Panamá, A View of Panama through the Lens of La Junta Colectiva, 2022
Musée Magazine, Moment Feature, 2021
La Ruta Del Metro, video interview, 2021
Aviary Gallery, online exhibition, 2020
Estudio Nuboso, Artist in Focus, 2019
Phases Magazine, feature, 2016
Paper-Journal, feature, 2016
Aint-Bad Magazine, feature, 2015

Professional Experience

Teaching

The University of Texas at Austin
- Lecturer | Photo for Non-majors, 2026 • Analog Photography, 2026 • CORE: Time & Technology, 2025

Georgetown University
- Lecturer | Exhibition Practicum, 2026, 2025

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville
- Art Mentor+Facilitator | Art and Science Summer Research Program, National Science Foundation, 2024-2025