Pedro Mesa is a Colombian-born multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York. His work explores notions of concealment in constructing cultural identities; by problematizing the gaps between hegemonic and peripheral cultures, Mesa reformulates the socio-political incidences of these movements, translations, and traditions. Through his pieces, he researches the possibilities of these traditions and their (mis)translation[s], reformulating, and disrupting these objects and models' movements through the worlds he inhabits.
Mesa has exhibited his work internationally at the Chinese Academy of Art Museum in Hangzhou; HERE Arts in New York; Creative Drive in New York; and PULSE in Miami, among others. In Colombia, his paintings and drawings have been exhibited at the Galería La Cometa in Bogotá; the Museo de Arte Moderno in Bogotá; the Centro de Historia, Memoria y Paz, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, both in Bogotá; the Escuela Taller de Barichara in Santander, among others. Brooklyn Rail, TEDX, Behance, VICE, XIBT Contemporary Art Magazine, Journal of the Association of Colombian Studies of the University of San Diego, Arcadia Magazine, Semana Magazine, El Tiempo Newspaper, El Espectador, and others have reviewed his work.
Pedro holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NY, a BFA in Fine Arts, and a BA in Literature, both from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. He runs Didartik: Artcelerator & Mentorship, a platform for young creatives who want to study abroad. He teaches in the Department of Fine Arts and the Department of Art History at the School of Visual Arts in New York, and at the Foundation Department at Pratt Institute in New York - he teaches painting, drawing, and image theory.
CV upon request