Enrique Chagoya

Enrique Chagoya is a Mexican-born American painter, printmaker, and educator. The subject of his artwork is the changing nature of culture. He frequently uses shocking imagery, irony, and Mesoamerican icons to convey his point in his artwork. Chagoya teaches at Stanford University, in the department of Art and Art History. He lives in San Francisco.

Enrique Chagoya was born in Mexico City in 1953. His father, who was a bank employee, was also an artist. This influence from a young age was instrumental in Chagoya's interest in pursuing art. He was partly raised by an Amerindian nurse who helped him to respect the indigenous people of his country and their history. He studied economics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City from 1971 to 1974. As a student, he was sent to work on rural development projects with a focus on economics, an experience that strengthened his interest in political and social activism. While attending a rural development program he married an American sociologist working on the same program, Jeanine Kramer.

In 1977, Chagoya and his first wife Jeanine Kramer visited McAllen, Texas. In 1979, Chagoya immigrated to the United States to Berkeley, where he worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. In 1984, he earned a BFA degree at the San Francisco Art Institute; and in 1987 a MFA degree at the University of California at Berkeley.

He received the Stanford University's the Dean's Award in the Humanities in 1998. In 2000, Chagoya became a citizen of the United States. As of 2016, he was a full time professor in the department of Art and Art History at Stanford University.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024