Miguel Calderón explores a broad range of themes, from violence, family dynamics, the limits of human nature, to the supernatural. However, his work is unified by an ever-present sense of theatricality, questioning the fine line between reality and fiction. Frequently cast from the perspective of an outsider, he highlights the macabre complexity of man’s position in the universe deftly weaving together mockery, foolishness, social critique and sincerity of emotion. He creates works from a mashup of vernacular references, employing a variety of media, including video, photography, sculpture and painting. For Calderón, it is important that art be accessible; he came of age as an artist in Mexico during the 1990s, when he was a key figure in the development of a young alternative art scene in Mexico, associated with the non-commercial art space he co-founded called La Panadería.
Calderón received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1994. He has been the recipient of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Grant & Commissions program (2013), The MacArthur Fellowship for Film and New Media (2000), and the Bancomer/Rockefeller Fellowship (1995).