Federico Herrero was born in 1978 in San José, Costa Rica, where he still lives and works. He studied painting at the Pratt Institute, New York, from 1997 to 1998. In 2001 he won the special prize for young artists at the 49th Venice Biennale. Herrero also participated in the exhibition Fare Mundi/Nuevos Mundos at the Latin American Pavilion part of the 53rd Venice Biennial in 2009.

Herrero’s artistic practice encompasses painting on canvas, public wall painting as well as sculptural installations. His work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA; Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, Costa Rica; Kunstverein Zürich, Switzerland; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil; and Para/site, Hong Kong. In 2014 he participated in the exhibition Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, which toured to the South London Gallery, London, in 2016. Federico Herrero is represented by Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf and Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo.