Melquíades Herrera

Melquiades Herrera (1949-2003) was a multifaceted and irreverent artist. He was a pioneer of performance in Mexico and a member of the legendary No-Grupo (1977-1983). He taught geometry, visual education and design at the former San Carlos Academy, the INBA School of Design and the National School of Plastic Arts. Melquiades Herrera’s fascination with everyday objects, as well as his attention to urban popular culture and his keen sense of humor, rendered him a particular figure in the art scene of the late 20th century. Melquiades attended to aesthetics as much in streets and markets as in galleries and museums. His writings in magazines and newspapers show a particular way of producing sharp criticism.

This publication, coordinated by Sol Henaro, brings together materials that Melquiades Herrera produced throughout his career. Photographs, objects, chronicles, essays and poems of his authorship allow us to enter his universe. The works, accompanied by notes for their contextualization and testimonies from colleagues and friends, recompose an artistic production that, due to its ephemeral nature and institutional omissions, had been kept away from the public, but persisted as a rumor, almost as a cult, in several generations.