About Francisco Peláez

My artistic practice focuses on exploring drawing and comics as narrative and expressive media, valuing their intrinsic possibilities to convey emotions, ideas, and stories. I am interested in how the manual act of drawing, particularly in formats similar to that of a sketchbook, establishes a direct connection between the brain and the hand, allowing for a fluid and spontaneous interaction that is essential to my creative process. I can observe how comics expand the possibilities of drawing by integrating sequential visual narratives that allow me to explore time and emotions in a very personal way.

I am not interested in using elements of comics exclusively as an aesthetic resource for external or critical commentary, as seen in the works of Roy Lichtenstein or Álvaro Barrios. My approach does not seek to detach comics from their narrative and cultural roots but to highlight their capacity as an autonomous medium to construct stories and address complex themes. I also do not aim to confine my work to commercial formats or predictable formulas; although I include humor, eroticism, and references to the grotesque, my goal is to expand the boundaries of graphic narrative towards proposals that invite reflection on our contemporary experience.

My interest in comics and drawing comes from a mix of personal and artistic influences. Since childhood, drawing was a mechanism for attention and release, while television and popular culture of the 1980s shaped my understanding of the visual and the narrative. In my adolescence, I discovered artists like Robert Crumb, whose brutal honesty and expressive linework have been fundamental to my work, and the Hernández brothers, whose clean style and narratives about Latina women resonated deeply with my own thematic explorations. Other references like Goya—whose work marked my childhood with indelible images such as Saturn Devouring His Son—, Nazario and his irreverent exploration of queer counterculture, and David Shrigley, with his childlike aesthetic and acerbic humor, have also significantly influenced my artistic approach.

In my work, these references and experiences translate into pieces that combine manual drawing with a graphic narrative rich in black humor, critique, and exploration of the human condition. Through jokes, scenes of eroticism, and scatological references, I seek to create narratives that oscillate between the personal and the universal, addressing themes such as sexuality, identity, and sociocultural tensions.

While my work takes shape in comic pages or notebooks, I consider these not merely as supports but as vehicles to connect with a diverse audience, whether through exhibitions, publications, or digital media.