Mario Ybarra, Jr. has developed a prolific artistic practice that emanates from his upbringing, producing contemporary art that is filtered through his Mexican-American experience. Ybarra grew up in the greater Los Angeles-area and is one of a new generation of artists of Mexican descent that does not reject their American identity but embraces both trajectories in their background equally. Ybarra’s work operates as examinations of excluded social norms, often including complete environments, histories, and narratives.

Mario Ybarra Jr. was born in Los Angeles in 1973 and lives in Wilmington, California. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Otis College of Art and Design in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Irvine in 2001. One-person exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Boone Family Art Gallery at the Center for Arts, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA (2015); Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA (2013); Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara, CA (2012). His work has been included in thematic exhibitions such as L.A. Exuberance: New Gifts by Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Tastemakers & Earthshakers: Notes from Los Angeles Youth Culture, 1943–2016, Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park, CA (2016); Made in L.A. 2012, organized by the Hammer Museum in collaboration with LAXART, Los Angeles, CA (2012); Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2008); The World as a Stage, Tate Modern, London, UK (2007); and the California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA (2006).