Hadrian Mendoza

ceramic artist

Hadrian Mendoza, a stoneware Potter, works with a fearless and audacious search for 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 Anne and Arnold Abramson award for Excellence in Ceramics in 1996-1997.  He also organized the 1st Southeast Asian Ceramics Festival under the 2007-2009 Toyota Foundation Japan Grant. He curated the 2nd Southeast Asian Ceramics Conference and Exhibition in Fuping Pottery Art Village’s FLICAM International Ceramics Museum in China. 

In 1997 he searched for his roots and moved back 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 at achieving heavy cultural undertones for his works. In 2009, Hadrian moved to Virginia, USA with his family and is currently the art director at St. Thomas More Cathedral School. A humble craftsman, Mendoza serves at the feet of his own cultural dilemmas as an artist.

His works are permanent collections in museums in Cambodia,  China, Korea, Japan, and 3 renowned museums in the Philippines, which are The Metropolitan Museum Manila, The Ayala Museum, and BenCab Museum.

"In the Galleries: this art will really speak to you" Washinton Post, Arts and Style June 24, 2017 by Mark Jenkins

June 27, 2017  /  Hadrian Mendoza

The Washinton Post, Arts and Style, June 24, 2017 by Mark JenkinsHadrian MendozaCeramics are prone to breakage, so most potters avoid making pieces with protruding bits. But Hadrian Mendoza has apparently been in a prickly mood. The series…

The Washinton Post, Arts and Style, June 24, 2017

by Mark Jenkins

Hadrian Mendoza

Ceramics are prone to breakage, so most potters avoid making pieces with protruding bits. But Hadrian Mendoza has apparently been in a prickly mood. The series that provides the title of his Zenith Salon show, “Dangerous Flower,” features toothy tendrils that bristle from spherical forms. These are inspired by the “mathematical design of the stamen,” a gallery note explains. But there also are a “Cactus,” a few large “Blooms” that resemble dinosaur mandibles and several busts of spiky-haired punk rockers.

Heads are as common as blossoms in this selection, in fact. The Philippines-bred local artist is showing a horizontal lineup of ceramic craniums that includes a cat-pig and an E.T. with large, goggle-like eyes. There also are a circular series in which glazes drip into moptops and a smaller set with elastic cords that dangle from skulls like dreadlocks. The forms are inventive, and so are the surfaces, which range from matte to glossy and uniform to mottled. The earthy colors emphasize that Mendoza’s work in made of clay, even when he transmutes it into something as a filmy as a flower or a cloud.

Dangerous Flower: Hadrian Mendoza On view through July 8 at Zenith Gallery, 1429 Iris St. NW. 202-783-2963. zenithgallery.com.

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