Mexican artist inundating Oaxaca's streets with memes and art

The Mexican artist, Froy Padilla Aragón , is painting Oaxaca's historic center with incredible murals.

He mixes Mexican icons with Hollywood images . There are also heroes from the Mexican Revolution in absurd memes .

Pop culture

is the heart of Froy Padilla 's artistic concept.

He said: “I'm interested in the streets in Oaxaca . The color palette in the streets is very vivid. You have every color in the center of the city”.

He said that the combination of these characters came from the fact that he likes iconic Hollywood movies from the 80s, and then he mixed them with Mexican movie icon s.

He began the project two years ago and has done around 20 murals in the streets of Oaxaca .

He explained that he uses a technique called “wheat paste”. This technique sticking paper to a surface with wheat paste, made out of water and flour.

And although Padilla has been careful and has permits to place his murals in businesses and homes, the local authorities have closed down three of his pieces.

His combinations use images from memes, pictures of actresses and actors or revolutionary heroes.

“Memes in digital walls are quite ephemeral, that's why I placed things from the digital wall into the physical one, by mixing characters with memes”, explains Padilla.

For Padilla, using the streets as a canvas is very important: “That's where you can tell stories and where society develops, in the streets”, he says.

Chicano art in Mexico City

gm