Rodo Padilla

Rodo Padilla is one of Mexico's most renowned sculptors in high-temperature ceramic (stoneware), and some of his best known pieces are also cast in bronze. He lives and works in his town of birth, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, where he grew up among pottery and crafts in his father's workshop.

He graduated in chemical engineering from the University of Guadalajara and went on to specialize in ceramic materials and design in Toki and Nagoya, Japan, with further design courses in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Faenza, Italy.

Padilla has shown in solo and group exhibitions since 1992 in galleries across Mexico and in the United States, and most of his work is on permanent display in his own galleries in Tlaquepaque, Puerto Vallarta and the Riviera Maya. He has won several prizes in ceramic design, including first place in the National Ceramics Award in 1992, 2000, 2003 and 2007, and he now chairs that award. He was named Ambassador of the Pan American Games Guadalajara 2011.

His public commissions include a group of ceramic and bronze sculptures representing the fundamental rights of children at the Trompo Mágico museum in Guadalajara, Jalisco. His most recent exhibition, Of Children Is the Kingdom of Heaven, was presented at the Hospicio Cabañas in 2012.