Elliot Túpac is a Peruvian muralist, lettering artist, and screen printer. He is credited with reviving the chicha poster, the fluorescent silkscreened advertising for chicha music concerts, and elevating it from the street into art galleries.
Early life Túpac was born in Huancayo, in Peru's Mantaro Valley, and settled in Lima. His mother was an artisan of Wanka embroidery, and his father, Fortunato Urcuhuaranga, made silkscreened concert posters in the 1980s for such chicha musicians as Chacalón, , Los Shapis, and , and taught his son printing processes. Túpac began making posters himself at about age 11, and fellow chicha artist Monky was his mentor. He studied communications.
Career
He works in hand-drawn lettering and screen printing. His style of letterforms is similar to the embroidery of the Mantaro Valley. Túpac has painted murals in Peru and internationally, including in Chile, England, Tunisia, and the United States, and has taught and lectured abroad. He has produced commercial design work for brands including BBVA, Cristal, Dunkin' Donuts, , Movistar, Puma, and Saga Falabella. He also did design work for the films Madeinusa (2006) and La teta asustada (2009).
+ Selected works Date Title of work Location Details January 2010 N/A UK Creative Review magazine cover 2012 Equilibrio Providencia, Santiago, Chile Mural for the urban intervention festival Hecho en Casa2013 N/A Santiago, Chile Official poster for Chilean Lollapalooza 2015 Citizen of the World Newcastle upon Tyne, England Mural for the tenth ¡Vamos! festival of Latin American culture Portrait of Chabuca Granda Lima, Peru Collaboration with the muralist Decertor2017 N/A Online Google Doodle of an Andean hummingbird and Machu Picchu for Peru's independence dayNovember 2020 Memoria coliseum, Magdalena del Mar, Peru Mural with Decertor depicting Inti Sotelo and Bryan Pintado, killed during the November 2020 protestsN/A Sembrar Amor Recoleta, Santiago, Chile Collaboration with Ignar Haze and Ecos on the role of visual messaging in public space
Critical reception In 2013, El Comercio wrote that Túpac's work embodies "the maturation of a historical and cultural process begun with South American rural-to-urban migration, one that overcame the prejudice and arrogance of the salons and galleries until it was recognized by the most demanding critics". In 2015, the UK publication The Guardian wrote that Túpac's classic chicha style as a sign writer had earned him international recognition. In his 2021 study of chicha aesthetics, Peruvian sociologist Arturo Quispe Lázaro credited Túpac with initiating the revival of chicha style, both in creating a new form of chicha expression and reviving the chicha poster.
Selected exhibitions and collections 2010: Chile Chicha, Galería 13, Santiago, Chile, his first gallery exhibition 2012: Letra Capital, Pancho Fierro art gallery, Lima, solo exhibition curated by César Ramos; his first exhibition in Peru, and the first show of chicha posters in a Lima art gallery 2015: Vibraciones, Pepe Cobo gallery, Barranco, Lima 2019: Exhibition at the gallery of , Paris, as invited artist of a two-week program of Peruvian culture in France 2019: Revolución Chicha, Lunder Arts Center, Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, group exhibition of Peruvian chicha art curated by Andrew Mroczek 2024: Contemporáneo 1, MAC Lima, long-term exhibition of the museum's permanent collection 2024: 20th-anniversary exhibitions, Galería ÍNDIGO, San Isidro, new collection and live mural 2026: Somos Libres. Volumen 2, Ministry of Culture, Lima, group exhibition curated by Martín Yépez
Notes
References
External links
2010 interview for Creative Review