New York-based Ivan Monforte was born in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. He received a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1996, and an MFA from New York University in 2004. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2004. He has shown at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Longwood Art Gallery, the Queens Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, Artists Space as part of PERFORMA05, Elizabeth Foundation Gallery, Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, La MaMa Galleria, and Socrates Sculpture Park. He is the recipient of a UCLA Art Council Award, a Lambent Fellowship in the Arts from the Tides Foundation, and an Art Matters grant for research in Samoa. He has participated in residencies at Sidestreet Projects, Lower East Side Print Shop, Center for Book Arts, and Smack Mellon.