Mexico
Tijuana, 1970
Yvonne Venegas (b. 1970, raised in Tijuana) graduated from the International Center of Photography in New York and received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, in 2009. Through long-term documentary-style projects, she explores ideas of gender, class, and the practice of photography as a subject of study. Recently, her practice has expanded to include drawing and three-dimensional pieces that engage in dialogue with her projects.
Venegas has exhibited her work in solo and group shows throughout Mexico, the U.S., Canada, Italy, Peru, Brazil, Spain, France, Poland, and Russia, including solo exhibitions at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica, Casa de América in Madrid, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the University Museum of Contemporary Art (MUAC) in Mexico City, Diaz Contemporary Gallery in Toronto, Baxter in New York, and the Fotografia Europea festival 2024 in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
In 2010, she received the Magnum Expression Award from Magnum Photos, as well as the National Creators Grant from the Mexican Cultural and Arts Fund (FONCA) on two occasions. In 2016, she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for her project San Pedro Garza García. In 2020, she received the Jumex Grant and the Cuervo Acquisition Prize to continue her project El lápiz de la Naturaleza, a series of portraits dedicated to the study of pose. She also received the Sistema Nacional de Creadores Grant for her project Gestures of Survival, a subjective documentary photographic project that explored the landscapes and people around the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez).
Her work is part of collections in the U.S., Mexico, Spain, and France, and she has published five monographs: Maria Elvia de Hank (2010), Inédito (2012), Gestus (2015), San Pedro Garza García (2019), and The Pencil of Nature, all published by RM Editorial, Barcelona. Yvonne lives and works in Mexico City.
