Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Music/Sound 2024

Ava Mendoza

A sepia-toned photo of Ava Mendoza at a performance venue. She stands in sharp focus with their head turned towards the left while their body faces the right. Their eyes look to the left, they hold a white electric guitar with their right arm braced against the body, hand over the strings. Their other hand holds the lower neck of the guitar. They are wearing two chain necklaces, a black sleeveless v-neck blouse, and a thick, striped sweatband on their right wrist.
Photo by Antonio Porcar Cano.
  • 2024 Grants to Artists
  • Music/Sound
  • Guitarist, Musician
  • Born 1983, Miami, FL
  • Lives in Brooklyn, NY
  • She/Her, They/Them
  •  
  • Additional Information
  • avamendozamusic.bandcamp.com

Artist Statement

Bats, dolphins, and whales use echolocation to find their way through space and time. Music/sound is also vital for humans as a social and spiritual guide. 

I grew up listening to folk music from many different parts of Latin America. There were songs about/for animals, plants, ghosts, witches and devils, deaths and funerals, births, love, sex, traveling, psychedelic drugs, the forces of nature, political dissent and satire, unsolved mysteries, kidnappings, abuse, the  unknown, the routine, and all sorts of legends, myths, and rituals. There was music for every single imaginable situation in life. 

Music has the power to fundamentally change the way we treat each other. It is one of the only semi-reliable ways I know to bring a kind of collective intimacy to a group of strangers. 

Music is also the way I process the world as an individual. It is a release, and a form of meditation, a ritual for sorting through recent events and settling myself. 

The raw power of sound has the ability to speak to us on a cellular level. I hope that my sounds, whether dramatically cathartic or comforting, can be helpful to the living things around me.

- December 2023

Biography

Ava Mendoza is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and songwriter. They are best known for their solo guitar/voice performances, and as the leader or co-leader of projects including Mendoza ★ Hoff ★ Revels, Third Landing, AM/FM (with violinist gabby fluke-mogul), and Unnatural Ways. They regularly collaborate and work as a supporting performer with various artists and groups, and are committed to bringing expressivity, energy, and a wide sonic range to the music they perform. 

Mendoza has toured throughout the Americas and Europe, performing and recording with a range of musicians, including Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Abiodun Oyewole (Last Poets), Matana Roberts, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, Bran(....)pos, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and members of Caroliner. As a composer, they have received commissions from Jazz Coalition, the New Music Creator Development Fund, John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust, and the film distributor Kino Lorber. 

Mendoza has performed at the Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands (2023); the Sons D’Hiver Festival in Paris, France (2023); the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN; and the MONA FOMA Festival in Tasmania, Australia (2015). They have recorded with the labels AUM Fidelity, Tzadik, Relative Pitch, Astral Spirits, and New Atlantis. 

They received The Stone NYC Artist Residency (2016 and 2022) in New York, NY, and were named an Eminent Artist in Residence at the MONA FOMA Festival (2015) in Tasmania, Australia. In 2016, Mendoza was featured as a part of Carte Blanche—a curated concert series for international musicians at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Mendoza is a Music Curator and Artist Lecturer at Creative Music Studio in New York, NY (2023), a Music Curator and Facilitator at Arts for Art in New York, NY (2023), and a Guest Music Curator at Union Pool in Brooklyn, NY (2023). They received their B.A. in Intermedia Art from Mills College in Oakland, CA.

A black and white photo of Ava Mendoza playing a dark electric guitar against a black background. Visible from the hips up, their body is facing the camera, head turned towards the left and eyes gazing downward. Their right arm is bent as their hand strums the strings of the guitar, and their left hand holds the strings on the guitar neck. They are wearing a dark, sleeveless v-neck top and two chain necklaces.

Performance still from solo performance at Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels, Belgium, 2017. Photo by Laurent Orseau.

Ava Mendoza plays an electric guitar on a brightly lit stage. They are visible from the hips up, centered with their head in front of an orange, overhead stage light, its bright rays fan out around their head, filling the majority of the image background. Their body is facing the camera while their face is turned to look at their left hand as they press the guitar strings, their right hand rests over the strings. Mendoza is wearing black jeans, a black sleeveless button up blouse with leopard print highlights on the shoulders, a chain necklace, and small earrings.

Performance still from solo performance at Plages Magnétiques, Brest, France, 2023. Photo by France Paquay.

Ava Mendoza plays a wood grain patterned electric guitar on a dark stage, lit from behind by two bright orange lights. Visible from the hips up, their body and head are facing the camera, and their eyes gaze down at the floor. Their left hand holds the neck of the guitar while their right picks at the strings over the guitar body. They are wearing a black sleeveless button up top with leopard print highlights on the shoulders, a chain necklace, and an earring in their right earlobe.

Performance still from solo performance at Plages Magnétiques, Brest, France, 2023. Photo by France Paquay.

Ava Mendoza plays a wood grain patterned electric guitar on a stage, lit by orange and blue lights. Visible from the hips up, their body is turned slightly to the right, and their eyes are closed. They are wearing a black sleeveless button up top with leopard print highlights on the shoulders, a watch and leather band bracelet on their left wrist, a chain necklace, and a pair of round, dangling earrings.

Performance still from Third Landing + Abiodun Oyewole at Sons D-Hiver Festival, Paris, France, 2023. Photo by Margaux Rodrigues.

Ava Mendoza performs on a stage lit by red lights. Visible from the hips up, they are turned to the left and play an electric guitar while singing into a microphone, eyes closed. They are wearing black jeans with a black belt, a black sleeveless button up top with leopard print highlights on the shoulders, and a silver chain necklace.

Performance still from Atlantique Jazz Festival at Plages Magnetique, Brest, France, 2023. Photo by Herve LeGall.

"New Ghosts" from New Spells (Relative Pitch Records, 2021)

"Echolocation" from Echolocation (AUM Fidelity, 2023)

"Interwhining" from Echolocation (AUM Fidelity, 2023)