Brief Biography 

Born Juan Daniel Estrada, on June 27 1966 to Juan and Rosario Estrada in a small home  in East Los Angeles.

From a very young age John (also known during his youth as "Danny")  showed an incredible interest in art,  drawing daily and gaining inspiration from community muralist in East Los angeles.  His childhood was filled with many tragedies and ultimately becoming an orphan with the death of his father at age 14.  He lived briefly in Mexico City with relatives where he gained an appreciation for murals and Mexican art.

By the age of 15 John was influenced by the New York Hip Hop scene, moving his attention from a barrio lifestyle to a more energetic and expressive atmosphere. While in High School he demonstrated an aggressive pursuit for the arts winning several art competitions.  Including internships to the California State university, Los Angeles (ceramics) and to the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design (fine art and life drawing).

Upon his graduation from Verdugo Hills High School, John began his fine art studies at the Otis Art Institute, majoring in fine art and Illustration. While attending Otis, John became deeper involved in the urban hip hop scene of LA, meeting personalities like Carmelo Alvarez who introduced him to the 'RadioTron".  John was one of the many early pioneers that created the graffiti movement in the early eighties. John recreated himself as Zender One (the rising mountain) and had his first one- man show at Otis titled "Zender-Neo Expressionism" in 1987. 

Since then Zender is committed to making public art and has produced over 300 murals in Los Angeles the United States and currently in Ireland. 
As founder of Creative Art Solutions he has devoted many hours nurturing young artists, producing artistic events (Drive-through Galleries), coordinating workshops with many youth organizations and making a difference in many communities. 

Zender has separated his public art from his personal paintings, His easel works have evolved from series to series and most of his early works now reside in private collections. In 1995 his work arrived at a spiritual turning point and began incorporating spirituality into his work. Influenced by Kandinsky, Matta, Gorky, Basquiat and the Bible, he began calling his painting theory deranged aesthetics.  His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Zero-1 Gallery, Pueblo Gallery, CSDI, ICU Gallery and many others. He has had several one man shows and many group shows, exhibiting with Chicano artists, Graffiti artists and currently joining with a group of Latin American artist "Fundacion Calero".
 
 

 "My work is influenced by the word of God. I want to bring eternal spiritual concepts into my work, I use the artistic language to communicate life and existence. When I see a vision or a spiritual truth it holds so much mystery that using mere recognizable imagery can't reach the soul of the viewer."