STATEMENT/BIO

Michael Menchaca (b. 1985) is a Xicanx, Mexican-American, Queer/non-binary contemporary visual artist born and raised in San Antonio, TX. They create artworks at the intersection of print media, digital animation, painting, video sculpture, photo collage, and new media installation. Their vector-based drawings blend the framework of ancient Mesoamerican Codices, European Bestiaries, Catholic Baroque imagery, Mexican devotional paintings, textile arts, and Japanese Video Games with the seductive, attention-seeking interfaces of Big Data Technologies. In studying the print techniques of artists such as Kara Walker, Shahzia Sikander, and Enrique Chagoya, Menchaca became fascinated by how printmaking offers a creative outlet to express their perspective as a Queer millennial and 1st-generation South Tejanx Xicanx. In 2010, they began developing a digital lexicon of animal archetypes and narrative pattern designs, or their own digital codex, to assist in disrupting the racist political theories embraced by the Jim Crow South. Their print and design work mythologizes the interwoven logic of global apartheid projects, including: European conquest, U.S. border imperialism, cultural assimilation, economic disenfranchisement, natural resource extraction, gender violence, data colonialism, and AI evangelism. Their original vector drawings have materialized in screen-prints, archival inkjet prints, vinyl wallpapers, public art murals, ceramic tiles, digital animations, video installations, and collage works on paper. Through maximalist imagery and coded symbolism, Menchaca attempts to visualize the various intra-ethnic social aspects that specifically characterize the Latinx experience across lines of class, caste, age, gender, race, nationality, neurodiversity, sexuality, and ability, all contextualized within a hyper-mediated American landscape.
Michael Menchaca studied at San Antonio College (Print Graphics '07), Texas State University (Bachelor of Fine Arts - Printmaking '11), and the Rhode Island School of Design (Master of Fine Arts - Printmaking '15). They have received numerous awards, notably the Latinx Artist Fellowship in 2021 from the US Latinx Art Forum (USLAF), supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation. Menchaca's work has been featured in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, Artnet, The San Antonio Express News, La Prensa Texas, El Central Hispanic News, The Washington Post, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Modern Art Notes Podcast. Their work can be found in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian American Art Museum, D.C.; U.S. Library of Congress, D.C.; The National Gallery of Art, D.C.; Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; El Museo Del Barrio, NY; The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR; The San Antonio Museum of Art, TX; McNay Art Museum, TX; The Blanton Museum of Art, TX; and Princeton University Art Museum, NJ; among others. Exhibitions include the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; El Museo del Barrio, NY; The Davis Museum, MA; The Chrysler Museum of Art, VA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, D.C.; The Benton Museum of Art, CA; The Contemporary Austin, TX; The Lawndale Art Center, TX; The McNay Museum, TX; North Carolina Museum of Art, NC; and The Print Center New York, NY. They have been an artist-in-residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME ('11); The Serie Project at Sam Coronado Studios, TX ('12); Vermont Studio Center, VT ('13); Wassaic Project, NY ('16); Segura Arts Studio, IN ('18); The Studios at MASS MoCA, MA ('19); and have participated as a visual arts fellow-in-residence at The Fine Arts Work Center, MA ('15—'16). They live and work in San Antonio, TX.

Photo: Argenis Apolinario 2026