Biography

Jason Mena is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video, and photography. His work explores issues related to authorship, ownership, economic disparities, and the interplay between art and commerce. By connecting local problems with a broader global critique, he examines the power dynamics between the center and the periphery, inviting viewers to reflect on the complexities of the human experience within a wider socio-political context.

Mena holds a BFA in painting from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico and studied Photography at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Low-Residency Program at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, before completing an MFA in Art Practice from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He was an artist-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA, North Adams, Hotel Charleroi at B.P.S.22 Musée d'art de la Province de Hainaut, Belgium, and BACO-Batuco Arte Contemporáneo, Chile.

Mena was awarded a Lexus Grant for the Arts and The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and his work featured in notable publications by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes de Mexico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, The New Yorker, Museum of Latin American Art, Yale School of Architecture, Queens Museum, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the University of California UCLA, and exhibited in prominent institutions, including the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Unicorn Centre for Art, Bombas Gens Centre d'Art, Palais de Tokyo, The San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica, Karachi Biennale, Hessel Museum of Art, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Delaware Art Museum, Wallach Art Gallery, Museo de Arte Moderno de Santo Domingo, Museu das Comunicações de Lisboa, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, and Museu Mineiro, among others.