Victor Yañez-lazcano

El/He/Him

Victor Yañez-Lazcano is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in southeastern Wisconsin. Inspired by oral history and first-hand accounts, his practice explores notions of identity in relation to place, time, language, and labor. Early works prioritize large format color photography, comprised of portraiture and still lifes, to poetically investigate the varying degrees of assimilation occurring throughout his family. More recent works utilize sound, sculpture, performance, and installation to interrogate the roles language and labor have played in both the formation of and perception of US-Latinx-immigrant, and subsequent generations’, identities.

His work has been exhibited in numerous spaces including Patricia Sweetow Gallery (San Francisco), Royal Nonesuch Gallery (Oakland), Natalie & James Thompson Art Gallery (San Jose), Alibi Fine Art Gallery (Chicago), as well as Mind/Matter Gallery (Rochester) and Aviary Gallery (Boston). Past residencies include Recology AIR (San Francisco), SOMA Summer (Mexico City), The Industry of the Ordinary’s Summer School Residency (Chicago), and ACRE (Stueben, WI). 

Since 2008, Yañez-Lazcano has balanced his artistic practice by sharing his skills and experience in the classroom as a teaching artist. In 2012, he helped co-found LATITUDE, a non-profit community-based DIY digital facility that allows recent graduates and working artists affordable access to industry standard equipment for the production of personal artworks. Yañez-Lazcano holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from Columbia College-Chicago.