Francis Almendarez

Francis Almendárez is an artist, filmmaker, and educator from South Central Los Angeles, CA. His work takes many different forms including exhibitions, screenings, workshops, collaborations, and performances that have been presented in museum, university, arts nonprofit, artist-run, virtual, and DIY spaces both nationally and internationally. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Blaffer Art Museum and FotoFest International, Houston, TX; San Antonio Museum of Art; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, TW. He has presented solo exhibitions and commissioned projects at RAFFMA, San Bernardino, CA, (2024); Antenna, New Orleans, LA (2021); Aurora Picture Show, Houston, TX (2020); Galveston Arts Center, TX (2020); Artpace, San Antonio, TX (2019); The Reading Room, Dallas, TX (2019), Houston Center for Photography, TX (2018), and NX Project Space, London, UK (2016). Recent presentations include a collaborative performance at www.prospectart.org with Alejandra R. Bolaños; a traveling sculpture for the ANTHROPOZÄNTA artist residency in Hof/Saale, Germany; and a screening at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France.

Writing on Almendárez's work has been featured in The Invisible Archive, Moving Image Art London, D Magazine, Artforum, Hyperallergic, Glasstire, The Dallas Morning News, Art Papers, and The New York Times among many other publications. He has also contributed interviews and texts to publications including Strange Fire Collective, The Brooklyn Rail, and Burnaway Magazine. He is the recipient of numerous awards including an Artadia Award, the Carol Crow Memorial Fellowship, and artist grants from the Dallas Museum of Art, Y.ES Contemporary, the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Idea Fund and Lightning Fund. He has also been a participant of the Porto Summer School on Art & Cinema, Artpace International Artist-in-Residence program, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Moscow Summer School.

He received an MFA in Fine Art (with Distinction) from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BFA in Sculpture/New Genres from Otis College of Art and Design. He is an Assistant Professor of Photography/Video and Studio Art in the Department of Art and Design at California State University, San Bernardino. Previously, he was a full-time Visiting Lecturer in the School of Art at the University of Houston from 2019-2022, an Adjunct Professor at Houston Community College from 2019-2021, and a Teaching Artist at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from 2018-2022.