Harold Mendez (b. 1977, Chicago; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA from University of Illinois, Chicago (2007) and a BA from Columbia College, Chicago (2000). Selected solo and two-person exhibitions have been held at Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2023); Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2021); Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Richmond (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2020); Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, University of Chicago (2020); Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston (2019); and Project Row Houses, Houston (2016). Selected group exhibitions have been held at John Michael Kohler Arts Center (2024); Walker Art Center (2023); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021); Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago (2019); Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston (2019); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2018); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); Bass Museum of Art, Miami (2017); LAXART (2017); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2017); Queens Museum (2017); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2017); Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2015); and The Drawing Center, New York (2015). Mendez is a recipient of Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2024), John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2024), Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship (2014), and Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship (2013). Mendez has participated in residencies at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan (2024, 2021); Light Work, Syracuse (2020); Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque (2018); Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva (2016); Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin (2014, 2012); Core Program, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2015); Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2013); The Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island (2013); and Ox-Bow, Saugatuck (2001).

Mendez’s work is in the collections of Chicago Transit Authority; Colección Diéresis, Guadalajara; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago; J.P. Morgan Chase Collection; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA (MAC3); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Studio Museum in Harlem; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.