George Rodriguez

Philadelphia, PA

Born and raised in El Paso, TX, George Rodriguez creates humorous decorative ceramic sculpture addressing his identity and community. He received an MFA from the University of Washington (UW) and a BFA in ceramics from the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP). He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the 2019 Emerging Artist Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and 2016 Museum of Northwest Art (MoNa) Luminaries: Patti Warashina Award for Emerging Artists. Rodriguez has exhibited extensively, including a solo show at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in 2018 and as a participant in MadArt’s first exhibition, The Window Art Project in 2009. His work can also be found in the permanent collection of the National Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago.

Rodriguez continues to draw on his travels to 26 countries on three continents backed by the Bonderman Travel Fellowship, which he was awarded in 2009. Expanding on his studies of global culture and ceremony, he seeks to bridge his Chicano heritage with Thai, Peruvian, Bolivian, Mongolian, Egyptian, Taiwanese, and Indonesian civilization and mythology. His work is a celebration of the individual against the backdrop of community, the modern world against the backdrop of the ancient. Rodriguez is represented by Foster/White Gallery in Seattle, WA and is the Artist in Residence at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia.