STATEMENT/BIO

Michael Menchaca (they/them) is a Xicanx, Mexican-American, Mexica, Mestizx, Queer multidisciplinary visual artist from San Antonio, TX working at the intersection of print media and new media formats. Their vector-based digital imagery blends the framework of ancient Mesoamerican Codices, European Bestiaries, Catholic Baroque paintings, and Japanese Video Games with the seductive, attention-seeking interfaces of Big Data Technologies. They have developed a personalized digital lexicon of animal archetypes and narrative pattern designs, or their own digital codex, to assist in mythologizing the interwoven logic of European conquest, U.S. border imperialism, data colonialism, and AI assisted cultural hegemony. Their practice engages in transforming digitally composed vector graphics into printed works on paper while creating immersive installation experiences that utilize a combination of printmaking, painting, and digital animation. Through maximalist imagery and coded symbolism, Menchaca explores the intra-ethnic social variances that define Latinx peoples across lines of gender, race, age, class, caste, nationality, neurodiversity, sexuality, and ability.
Michael Menchaca earned their MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015, and their BFA from Texas State University in 2011, concentrating both degrees in Printmaking. Menchaca's works are 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; 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; Vermont Studio Center, VT; the Wassaic Project, NY; the Segura Arts Studio at Notre Dame University, IN; the Serie Project at Coronado Studios, TX; The Studios at MASS MoCA, MA, and a fellow-in-residence at The Fine Arts Work Center, MA. They are one-half of the artist collective Dos Xicanx. In 2021, the US Latinx Art Forum (USLAF), supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation, awarded Menchaca the inaugural Latinx Artist Fellowship.

Portrait by: Anthony Francis