You may not know who they are, but you’ve definitely seen their work: It graces album covers, headlines major ad campaigns, and brings life to gritty street corners. It embodies a state of mind, evoking the rhythms of our ancestors and a way of living pervasive in our psyche yet not entirely visualized in real life. It harkens the spiritual, the mystical, and the magical; it transports us to jungles and pyramids and galactic spheres. Meet seven of the most iconic graphic artists working across the global South.
Paula Duró
Radically feminine, infused with iconic pre-Hispanic allegories, and saturated with vibrant, psychedelic hues, Paula Duró is one of Argentina’s most recognizable artists. Blending ancient symbolism with futuristic mysticism, her paintings, drawings, installations, and graphic art have landed on album covers and added life to scores of Buenos Aires-based locales, where the artist lives and works. Long-time collaborators like ZZK’s Chancha Via Circuito, Miss Bolivia, and Villa Diamante call on Duró to visualize the rhythmic sounds of their new wave cumbia.
Macondo Herald
Characterized by bright colors, bold contours, and an iconic neon gradient, cumbia posters were developed as a visual representation of its namesake rhythms. Macondo Herald builds on the tradition and makes it their own, playing with words, phrases, and quotes that make up the Caribbean imagination. Inspired by the writings of Colombian literary icon Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Macondo Herald was created by artist Nicole Bornacelli and today is dispatched from Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Look out for these large-scale posters scribbled with ruminations on music, el amor, and a breezy Caribbean way of life.
