George Rodriguez (MFA 2009) joined the School's Advisory Board in February 2019. Beginning on April 8, Rodriguez will be at MadArt Studio in Seattle to create Reflect and Gather. He will build a series of ornately-tiled rooms that differ through changes in color, texture, pattern, and lighting. There will also be a plaza space with sculptures. Open studio hours are through April 24 then the exhibition opens on April 25. Rodriguez will give an artist talk on May 4, and the exhibition will be open through May 18.
There has been growing recognition of Rodriguez's artwork in the last few years. In 2016, he was selected for the Patti Warashina Award for Emerging Artists as part of the MoNA Luminaries awards given by the Museum of Northwest Art. The 2016 MoNA Luminaries were featured in a museum exhibition earlier this year.
In 2018, Rodriguez had a solo exhibition at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Then he was the featured artist in the Foster/White Gallery booth at Seattle Art Fair. Crosscut and KCTS9 published an article and video about Rodriguez during the fair. Foster/White has hosted several solo exhibitions of his work since 2011.
The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) selected Rodriguez as one of six Emerging Artists for 2019. These artists displayed their work at the NCECA conference in Minneapolis at the end of March. Each also gave a presentation there.
One of Rodriguez's sets of animal zodiac heads is now part of the art collection of the UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. They are in the lobby on the fourth floor of the new Bill & Melinda Gates Center. This area is not open to the public, but you will have the opportunity to see the artwork if you are attending an event in that space.