José Ignacio Mendizábal

José Ignacio Mendizábal (born in 2002 in Quito, Ecuador) is a visual artist based in Montreal. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting and Drawing, with a minor in Art History, from Concordia University in 2025. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Jano Gallery, CIRCA Art Actuel, and 1215 Gallery in Montreal, as well as in a solo exhibition at RED ECX Gallery in Quito. He is currently an artist-in-residence at Jano Gallery.
In addition to his studio practice, Mendizábal has participated in curatorial projects in spaces such as Gallery 2112 and Sawa House, as part of the Art Matters festival.

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The paintings of José Ignacio Mendizábal explore heritage and collective memory through the lens of Ecuadorian society. Drawing inspiration from archival family photographs from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s discovered during a trip to Ecuador, his work examines the social dynamics of a nation marked by colonial legacies, social disparity, and cultural resilience. Rooted in the rich yet turbulent context of Latin America—a region shaped by the enduring aftermath of colonization—Mendizábal’s practice places the mestizo identity, born from the collision of Indigenous and European worlds, at its center.

Through vivid compositions shifting between the real and the imagined, his paintings inhabit the elusive space of memory, where identity is negotiated. As an international artist living in Canada, Mendizábal turns the act of painting Ecuadorian life into a gesture of reconnection and affirmation—one that makes Latin American identity visible and asserts its presence in a North American context where it too often remains overlooked. In this way, his art bridges personal memory and collective history, transforming the intimate into an act of cultural presence.