Hadrian Mendoza, a stoneware Potter, works with a fearless and audacious search for the unusual and indigenous forms, including expressionistic and abstract shapes. Mendoza was a graduate at Mary Washington College in Virginia and a former student at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC, where he was awarded the prestigious 1996-1997 Anne and Arnold Abramson award for Excellence in Ceramics. He is currently an MFA candidate at the George Washington University in Washington DC.
He has also organized the 1st 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. He curated “Earth and Fire: 3rd Southeast Asian Ceramics Symposium” at the Workhouse Arts Center which was funded by The Asian Cultural Council based in New York. In December 2016, he is curating “The Tree of Life: 4th Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival,” which will be hosted by The Ayala Museum in the Philippines, which is supported by Ayala Foundation and a private sponsor.
From 1997 to 2009, he created in 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 at achieving heavy cultural undertones for his works. A humble craftsman, Mendoza serves at the feet of his own cultural dilemmas as an artist.
His works are permanent collections in museums and institutions in Turkey, USA, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Korea, Japan, and 3 of the main museums in the Philippines, which are The Metropolitan Museum Manila, The Ayala Museum, and BenCab Museum.
In 2009 Mendoza moved back to Virginia in the United States and creates his pieces in his studio in Washington DC.