IVAR MENDEZ



Ivar Mendez was born in Bolivia but has spent most of his life in Canada. He lives in Saskatoon, where he is a Canadian neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and Professor of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan. Mendez served as F.H. Wigmore Professor and Provincial Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority from 2013 – 2022. As a scientist and an artist, he believes that science and art can synergize to promote creativity and innovation.

Although the methods of transacting with nature, science, art and spirituality, are often described as mutually resistant, there is a sense in which they can be seen as constantly interacting components of human thought, their vigorous back-and-forth describing the outline of an underlying, more fundamental drive in our relationship with nature. It is this drive, this spirit that is surveyed in the sculpture and photography of Ivar Mendez.

As a humanitarian he has established school breakfast, dental care and art programs in remote communities in the Bolivian Andes. The proceeds of his books and art are used to support these humanitarian programs.


Order of Canada