Harold Mendez gives a free, public lecture as part of the Fall 2022 IDS Lecture Series at The Cooper Union, organized by Leslie Hewitt and Omar Berrada. His work addresses the relationships between transnational citizenship, memory and possibility, considering how history is not only an affirmed past, but a potential future. His recent work examines how reclaimed objects, makeshift monuments and images reveal a life parallel to conflict, demonstrating both factual evidence and where traces of fiction emerge. For his talk titled, "And, perhaps, here, between," he will discuss recent research and projects.

Working across photography, sculpture, and installation, Harold Mendez’s recent projects include the search for the grave of the late Cuban artist Belkis Ayón, at the ICA Miami 2021-2022. Mendez’s ten-year career survey premiered at the ICA Los Angeles 2020-2021 and toured museums including the ICA VCU. He has participated in significant exhibitions, including Being: New Photography 2018, at the Museum of Modern Art, and the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Mendez's work has been the subject of exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem; MoMA PS1; the Renaissance Society; Project Row Houses and the Museum of Contemporary Art among others. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation; Core Program, Houston; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Headlands Center for the Arts as well as the Kohler Arts/Industry Residency. His works are included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art; Walker Art Center; Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

Any guests to compus are required to show proof of a vaccine to enter a Cooper Union Building and the Residence Hall.

The IDS public lecture series is part of the Robert Lehman Visiting Artist Program at The Cooper Union. We are grateful for major funding from the Robert Lehman Foundation. The IDS public lecture series is also made possible by generous support from the Open Society Foundations.