Pedro Mesa
Visiting Instructor
Biography
Pedro Mesa is a Colombian-born multidisciplinary artist and writer living and working in New York. His work explores notions of concealment in the construction of cultural identities by problematizing the gaps left across cultural exchanges.
Researching the possibilities of these traditions and their (mis)translation[s], through integrated painting, sculpture and video, Mesa seeks to reformulate and disrupt his own movement through contrasting cultures.
Mesa has exhibited his work internationally at the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá; the China Academy of Art CAA Museum in HangZhou; Galería La Cometa in Bogota; PULSE Fair in Miami, the HERE Art Center in New York; The Center for History, Memory, and Peace, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, both in Bogotá; Creative Drive in New York, The Escuela Taller of Barichara in Santander, and more. His work has been featured and reviewed by the Brooklyn Rail, TEDX, Behance, VICE, XIBT Contemporary Art Magazine, the Journal of the Association of Colombian Studies of the University of San Diego, ArtNexus, Revista Arcadia, Revista Semana, Periódico El Tiempo, El Espectador, amongst others. Mesa has lectured widely about the incidences that the genealogies of art history and theory have on immigration and the processes of translation; he is an active member of several artistic, pedagogical and social initiatives in Colombia and internationally. Residencies include the “Yellow Fish Festival of Durational Performance” in NY, “Life on an Island ” at Governors Island, NY and “Residencias Itinerantes” in Casanare, Colombia.
Mesa holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NY, a BFA in Fine Arts, and a BA in Literature from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. He is a faculty member at the BFA Fine Arts Department, and the Department of Art History and Critical Visual Studies at the School of Visual Arts, NY, as well as at the Foundation Department of Pratt Institute in New York.
Education
MFA, 2018, Fine Arts, The School of Visual Arts, New York
BA, Literature (Honors), Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
BFA, 2013, Fine Arts (Honors), Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Publications and Projects
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020-2021, Instrumentos para la Proximidad Parcial, Galería La Cometa, Bogotá, Colombia
2019, Barren Land, curate by Dan Halm, HERE Arts, NY
2019, No One Listening, Curated by María Alejandra Sáenz, Creative Drive, NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 Yellow Fish Festival VI of Durational Performance, Brooklyn, New York
2020 This Is Not My Tree, Curated by Nina Mdivani, NARS Foundation, New York, NY
2018 Tactics, Works, Terms, Forms, Statements, curated by Kari Conte, 371 Broadway, New York, NY
2018, Art-Letter-Home, China Academy of Art CAA Museum, Hang Zhou, China
2017, Premio Arte Joven Colsanitas Embajada de España 2017, Galería NueveOchenta, Bogotá, Colombia
2016, Re:Bandera, Más Arte Más Acción, Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación, Bogotá, Colombia
2015, Subasarte, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia
2015, Arte al Natural, Museo de Arte y Cultural Colsubsidio, Bogotá, Colombia
2014, MAMBO & Behance su unen a TEDx: La energía que mueve al mundo, Teatro Gaitán, Bogotá, Colombia