Abraham Mauricio Salazar (born 1957) is a
Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
Indian
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...
, living in
Oaxaca,
Mexico. For most of his life, Salazar has been working as a farmer, painter, and teacher.
His primary medium is papel
amate, a folk craft tradition that the Nahuatls have used for over two millennia.
The painting style takes its name from the medium that is used – “papel amate”, paper that is made from the bark of the
ficus tree.
Salazar is one of the most highly respected traditional bark painters in the State of
Oaxaca. In a highly distinctive style, he depicts the sights and sounds of his home village through sophisticated compositions and juxtapositions of color. Salazar along with his brother,
Roberto Mauricio Salazar, have painted on papel amate since they were children. Learning the technique from their father and other family members. Though unschooled in any formal setting, Abraham Salazar has studied art and executes pastoral scenes of Mexican
campesino
''Campesino'' means 'farmer' or 'peasant' in Spanish.
Campesino may refer to:
* Tenant farmer or farm worker in Latin America
* Los Campesinos!, an indie pop band from Cardiff, Wales
* Teatro Campesino, a theater group founded by the United Farm ...
(peasant) life that are outstanding examples of the form. With his brother
Roberto Mauricio Salazar, and
Felix Camilo Ayala,
Juan Camilo Ayala, he formed a cooperative.
While many in the tradition never became known for their works, Salazar was the
subject of a seminal (now out-of-print) book on the high-quality papel amate
paintings of the Nahuatl.
Exhibitions
*2006 "The African Presence in México: From Yanga to the Present"
National Museum of Mexican Art
*2001 "Multiplicity: Prints from the Permanent Collection"
*1999 "¡Provecho! A Taste of the Permanent Collection"
Illustrations
* Antonio Saldívar, ''Ciclo Mágico de los Días. Testimonio de Un Poblado Indigena Mexicano''. (Magical Cycles of the Days. Stories of an Indigenous Mexican Town), México City: Consejo Nacional de Fomento Educativo, 1985, Drawings by Abraham Mauricio Salazar. .
*Girón, Nicole, and Abraham Mauricio Salazar, ''El Barrio''. Patria, Mexico, D.F. 1983
References
Mexican painters
Contemporary painters
People from Oaxaca
Living people
1957 births
{{Mexico-painter-stub