David Mecalco (b. 1963) is a lifelong resident of Mexico City. He is best known for his folk-influenced votive paintings (retablos), wall-mounted shrines (altares), and reliquary boxes (relicarios  and cajas). Mecalco first began experimenting with devotional imagery in the early 1990s, blending elements of Mexican religious iconography with contemporary graphic and fine art influences. The resulting works of art, which are deliberately executed in an untrained or naïve style, test the limits of the traditional forms after which they are patterned.  

In recent years these vibrant works—pulsing with images of the Virgin Mary, the devil, skeletons, animals, petitioners, and more—have brought him international recognition. He is especially popular with foreign collectors, and in recent years his work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the Museé International des Arts Modestes in Sète, France, and art galleries across the United States.

For more than two decades artist David Mecalco has sold hand-painted devotional images (retablos) from a stall in Mexico City’s La Lagunilla Sunday antiques fair.

Although stylistically influenced by artists as different as Frida Kahlo and Vincent Van Gogh, Mecalco’s re-conceptualization of the art form is more inspired by the realities of life in the barrios and pulquerias (saloons) of Mexico. His sometimes near sacrilegious ex votos show a keen interest in the suffering of those marginalized or abused by mainstream society, most notably prostitutes and homosexuals.

He is a true outsider folk artist who is compelled to speak through his work combining the most unlikely bits of life into something beautiful…something soulful. An old photograph, baubles of gaudy jewelry, old baby dolls, and other discarded possessions are creatively assembled in painted boxes pealing with age, old suitcases, and anything else suitable for containing his imagination.