Vagner Mendonça-Whitehead

Vagner Mendonça-Whitehead is Director of the School of Visual Arts at Pennsylvania State University, a position he has held since 2020. He previously was Chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Texas Woman’s University.

Professor Mendonça-Whitehead’s practice encompasses traditional and newer media art-making, curatorial projects, and creative writings on visual culture. His artworks display accidental and forced intersections of personal experiences, histories, geo-locations, languages, and found artifacts. His work has been presented in group and solo exhibitions in galleries and museums, as well as film and video festivals, nationally and internationally, including Latin America, Europe, Australia, India, Russia, and United Arab Emirates. His writings unravel similar media/visual encounters in the form of critical and poetic essays.

In addition to presenting at national and international professional conferences, Professor Mendonça-Whitehead has presented his works as a visiting artist at University of Kansas–Lawrence, University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville, Champlain College and San Jose State University, to name a few. He has also participated in artist residencies in the United States, Argentina, and Scotland. He was the president of the New Media Caucus from 2014 to 2017, where he has also served on the Board of Directors since 2011.

Professor Mendonça-Whitehead serves NASAD as a visiting evaluator.

Professor Mendonça-Whitehead holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida.