Jorge Méndez Blake

{{Short description|Mexican artist}}

{{BLP sources|date=December 2016}}

Jorge Méndez Blake (born 1974) is a Mexican mixed-media conceptual artist. Trained as an architect,{{Cite web|url=https://www.yatzer.com/jorge-mendez-blake|title=Seeing Poetry: Mexican Artist Jorge Méndez Blake Transforms Literature into Sculpture and Visual Art|date=2016-03-10|website=Yatzer|language=en|access-date=2019-01-13}} the artist builds walls{{Cite web|url=https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/02/the-castle-by-jorge-mendez-blake/|title=A Single Book Disrupts the Foundation of a Brick Wall by Jorge Méndez Blake|date=2018-02-14|website=Colossal|language=en|access-date=2019-01-13}} and connects their history to literature. He lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico.{{Cite web |url=http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/2109 |title=E-Flux - Jorge Méndez Blake |access-date=2009-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100211140640/http://e-flux.com/shows/view/2109 |archive-date=2010-02-11 |url-status=dead }}

At the James Cohan Gallery in New York, he exhibited a wall entitled Amerika, based on a Franz Kafka novel, during the time of the government shutdown when president Donald Trump was advocating to build the wall between the U.S. Mexican border.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnews.com/2019/01/08/james-cohan-gallery-jorge-mendez-blake-builds-wall/|title=At James Cohan Gallery, Jorge Méndez Blake Builds a Wall|last=Selvin|first=Claire|date=2019-01-08|website=ARTnews|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-13}} In this sense, his work could be seen as border art.

His work focuses on writing as "a kind of construction," using his brick sculptures to connect architecture to literature.{{Cite web|url=https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/interview/jorge-mendez-blake-between-the-visual-arts-and-literature|title=Jorge Méndez Blake {{!}} Metal Magazine|website=metalmagazine.eu|access-date=2019-01-13}} He has exhibited widely in international bienniales and museums.{{Cite web|url=http://marfacontemporary.org/eng/exhibits/upcoming/jorge-mendez-blake/|title=Marfa Contemporary :: Jorge Mendez Blake|website=marfacontemporary.org|language=en|access-date=2017-06-11}}