Rebeca Méndez

Rebeca Méndez was born June 8, 1962 in Mexico City, Mexico.[1] Her parents were both chemical engineers who she always saw investigating, experimenting an proving their work, which she has credited as inspiring the process for her art work.[4] At the age of six Méndez trained as a gymnast and twelve years into her training she received an offer to participate in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Like many other countries, Mexico boycotted the Olympics and Méndez was unable to compete.[4] She relocated to the United States at 18 with the support and encouragement of her father and in 1984, received her BFA in Communication Design Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, at which point she became the Design Director of the ArtCenter.[4] Méndez went on to earn her MFA in Media Design Practices from the same university in 1996.[5][6][3]

One of Méndez's first designs was in her parents' home, where they allowed her to paint whatever she desired on the largest wall in their home.[6][7] Her work mostly involves photography, video, 16mm film, typography, cartography, and architecture.[6]

Her work explores the nature of perception and media representation, specifically how cultures express themselves through the style of nature that they produce at a given time and the medium through which they construct this nature.[8] Her artwork has been credited as making Méndez a strong asset to the fight against prejudice against women and intolerance due to her focus on women in society.[4]

Her art and design work has been exhibited and collected by institutions such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museo Jose Luis Cuevas in Mexico City, El Paso Museum of Art and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York.[1]

Together with her artist husband Adam Eeuwens, Méndez opened her first studio in 1996. Three years later she began working as the creative director at Brand Integration Group, Ogilvy & Mather in New York and Los Angeles, a position she held until 2003.[9] In 1997 she took on the position of art director for Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon and in the following year, held a curated solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[4]

Méndez began teaching as a professor in the Design Media Arts department for UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture in 2003[10] and in 2004, began working with the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, which was relaunched as Peace Over Violence. Her work with the commission has been credited as prompting a 50% increase in donations and earning her an honor at the 45th Annual Humanitarian Awards Gala.[11][4][12] In 2004 Méndez was invited to participate in a competition to design the user interface to the Microsoft Home, which she won.[13]

She has collaborated with Thom Mayne of Morphosis to create two murals for The Recreation Center at The University of Cincinnati and her work was exhibited at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, France as part of a 2006 retrospective of the work of Thom Mayne and Morphosis.[14][15] Two years later, in 2008, Méndez received a commission from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, who wanted her to create a permanent public art installation.[16][17] Mendez was one of many artists who participated in the first-ever TEDx conference at UCLA in 2011.[18][19] In 2013 Méndez started work on her Exhibition "CircumSolar, Migration 1", a video installation projected at Glow, all-night arts event, in Santa Monica Beach. Shortly after, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission recruits her to create the "CircumSolar, Migration 2", public art installation that will permanently showcase at the Pico Rivera Library.[20]

In 2015 Méndez created the CounterForce Lab at UCLA for undergraduates and currently serves as its director. The CounterForce lab is intended to help students research and developing creative collaborations specifically the social and ecological impacts of Anthropocene climate change.[21] The following year she produced "CircumSolar, Migration 4" for the Metro Art commission for Crenshaw/LAX, which will be public starting in 2020.[7]

In 2017 she received an artist residency in Mexico, where she focused on immigration issues and women's rights.[4] That same year she served as a juror for the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius award and served in this capacity again the following year. As of 2018 Méndez became a co-chair for the 2018 National Design Awards.[22][23]

• 1997 Leipzig Book Fair awards bronze medal for Best Book Design from All Over the World for book on Bill Viola designed for Whitney Museum of American Art.
• 2010 California Community Foundation Mid-Career Fellowship for Visual Artists.[24]
• 2010 California Community Foundation Mid Career Fellowship for Visual Artist.[25]
• 2013 City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship and Awarded artist residency aboard The Arctic Circle, sailboat expedition of Svalbard, to document migratory patterns of Arctic tern.[4]
• 2012 National Design Award in Communication Design from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum for her work that is now in their permanent collection.[26]
• 2016 Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women 45th Annual Humanitarian Awards Gala honoree.[27]
• 2017 Medal of A.I.G.A. (American Institute of Graphic Arts)[28]
• 2017 Induction to the One Club Hall of Fame in New York.[29]