 He has received a number of prestigious grants and awards, including the Giverny Residency (1998), the Rome Prize at the American Academy (1995–96), National Endowment for the Arts (1996), Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1995) and Art Matters Inc. (1991).It is important to note that Manuel Ocampo used to make art that criticized western colonialism through allegory and metaphor.Today, his work displays simple imagery; the artist has said of his 1990s work, "I was bored with that shit".