Hadrian Mendoza, a ceramic artist, works with a fearless and audacious search for unusual and indigenous forms, including expressionistic and abstract shapes. He is a graduate of Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA and also studied at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, where he was awarded the prestigious Anne and Arnold Abramson award for Excellence in Ceramics in 1996-1997. Mendoza received his M.F.A. in Ceramics from The George Washington University in Washington, DC where he was awarded the 2017 Alfred E. Steck Memorial Prize for Sculpture.

Mendoza has curated organized exhibitions which include the first Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival at The Ayala Museum in the Philippines funded by the 2007-2009 Toyota Foundation Japan Grant. He curated the “Clay Unity: 2nd Southeast Asian Ceramics Conference and Exhibition” in Fuping Pottery Art Village’s FLICAM International Ceramics Museum in China with a grant from Futo Industries. Mendoza curated “Earth and Fire: 3rd Southeast Asian Ceramics Symposium” at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, VA, which was funded by The Asian Cultural Council based in New York. In December 2016, he organized “The Tree of Life: 4th Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival,” hosted by The Ayala Museum in the Philippines, through an Ayala Foundation grant.

From 1997 to 2009, Mendoza pursued his studio practice to the Philippines, where he slowly metamorphosed into an individualistic and nationalistic artist with a keen and hungry eye for Southeast Asia’s indigenous forms. He has made deliberate attempts to achieve heavy cultural undertones in his work. A humble craftsman, Mendoza serves at the feet of his own cultural dilemmas as an artist.

Mendoza’s works are included in permanent collections in museums and institutions in Turkey, the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Korea, Japan, and the three major museums in the Philippines (The Metropolitan Museum Manila, The Ayala Museum, and BenCab Museum).

Mendoza is the current director of the visual arts program at St. Anselm’s Abbey school in Washington DC. He is also ceramics instructor at The Art League in Alexandria, VA, and conducts intensive workshops at the District Clay Center in Washington, DC.