A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Florida State University,[2] McLendon earned bachelor's degrees with honors in both music and art history.
[5] McLendon was named Interim Curator of Adult Learning at Tate Britain in 2002, where he was responsible for public programming related to the Turner Prize awarded to Keith Tyson.
After returning to the United States, he was named the inaugural Curator of Academic Initiatives at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, where he worked on exhibitions serving both collegiate and community audiences including Michael Phillips and the Infernal Method of William Blake (2009), and Andy Warhol: Personalities (2010)[6] In 2010, McLendon was recruited by The Ringling to reinvigorate its modern and contemporary programs, after a fifteen-year gap in curatorial leadership.
In addition to a revived emphasis on original exhibitions[11] and collection building,[12] McLendon established the Art of Our Time initiative, in conjunction with Ringling Curator of Performance Dwight Currie.
[17] McLendon was appointed director and chief curator of the Fralin Museum of Art in November 2016,[18] assuming the role at the University of Virginia in January 2017.