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Jesse Amado (1951- ) is an artist active in San Antonio, Texas.
In his youth Amado had aspirations to become an architect but lost interest later in high school. Amado joined the Navy at 17 becoming an east coast communications operator. He left the Navy after five years and moved to New York City. There, he visited art museums and became interested in art though he did not consider a career as an artist at this time. Instead, he studied English in college and graduated in 1977 from the University of Texas in Austin. He returned to San Antonio and became an English teacher in the public school system, but left this position a short time later. Following the suggestion of a friend, Amado joined the San Antonio fire department where he worked until retiring in 2002. Upon gaining a steady income, Amado began taking art classes at San Antonio College studying under Chicano artist Mel Casas. Amado continued to study fine art at the University of Texas in San Antonio in the 1980s. He earned another bachelor's degree as well as a master's degree in fine art in 1990. During this time he began exhibiting his artwork. He has since held numerous solo and group exhibitions of his work.
Amado completed residencies at San Antonio's Artspace, South Korea's City Gallery of Kwangju, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, N.E., and for the National Endowment for the Arts' Visual Arts Organization Grant at the Fabric Workshop and Museum of Philadelphia. His major projects include memorials for the San Antonio fire department and Days, an art installation in honor of Linda Pace at the San Antonio Central Library.