Joel Garcia

Joel Garcia

Papier-mâché Sculptures
Mexico City

Joel Garcia (born 1955, died 2023) is a Mexican papier-mâché artist who first met the Zagars in the 1990s. Garcia was trained by renowned papier-mâché artist Pedro Linares and is now famous across Mexico and the United States. Garcia utilized traditional Mexican icons and themes in his work, including skeletons and alebrijes. He often collaborated with the Zagars to create sculptures of Isaiah or Julia.

Joel created the large half-human, half-skeleton Isaiah in the basement. He also created the skeleton with a baseball cap and bucket and the large skeleton dog above the folk art station in the back gallery. The alebrijes in the gift shop and hanging devils for sale at the folk art station are also made by him.

In the past Joel would travel to Philadelphia each year to teach workshops at both the Eye’s Gallery and PMG. In 2017 he lost his visa and had not been able to visit since then.


Example:
Sitting Skeleton
Papier-mâché
35h x 18.50w x 14d in
88.90h x 46.99w x 35.56d cm
Location: Back Gallery

Watch a short video about Joel Garcia (English)
Mire un vídeo corto sobre Joel Garcia (Español)