Rodrigo Lara Zendejas

Biography

Born in Mexico in 1981, Rodrigo Lara Zendejas is the Assistant Professor and Area Head of the Ceramics Department at the University of Notre Dame. He received an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2013 and his BFA, Summa Cum Laude, from the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico in 2003. Lara has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Museo de Arte Moderno in the state of Mexico; Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico; Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago; the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago; C.G. Boerner in New York City; Centro cultural Ignacio Ramírez El Nigromante in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Kruger Gallery in Marfa, Texas; Test Site Projects in Las Vegas; Governors State University, IL; among others. He has been in such residencies as MASS MoCA, Cerámica Suro, ACRE, Ragdale, and Cross Currents: Cultural Exchange. Lara has two monographs of his work, Máscaras y Artefactos and Memorials. He won the first prize in sculpture at the Premio Nacional de las Artes Visuales in Mexico in 2010. He has received several awards including: Make a Wave Award, 3Arts, Chicago; Individual Artists Program Grants, DCASE, Chicago; Proyectos Especiales FONCA, Mexico City; Emerging Artist Grant, Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York City; Jóvenes Creadores, FONCA, Mexico City; Extraordinary Abilities Visa (O-1), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; James Nelson Raymond Fellowship, 2013 SAIC Fellowship Competition; PECDA Estudios en el extranjero, IQCA, Queretaro, Mexico; International Graduate Scholarship, SAIC; and the John W. Kurtich Travel Scholarship, SAIC, Berlin/Kassel, Germany, among others. Currently, Lara lives and works in Chicago.