Juan de Dios Mena (1915 - 1958) was a self-taught Argentine sculptor renowned for his vivid polychrome wood carvings depicting rural life and popular traditions of the Argentine Northwest. Working primarily with native hardwoods, Mena developed a distinctive visual language rooted in vernacular culture, portraying gauchos, musicians, market vendors, religious figures, and scenes of everyday provincial life with remarkable expressiveness and humor.
Born in Corrientes and active in Buenos Aires, Mena emerged as one of the most celebrated popular artists of twentieth-century Argentina. His sculptures bridged folk art and modern artistic practice, transforming local customs and characters into powerful cultural archetypes. Through their directness, craftsmanship, and emotional resonance, his works contributed significantly to the recognition of popular and regional traditions within the national artistic canon.
Today, Mena's work is represented in major public and private collections across Argentina and remains an important reference point in discussions surrounding identity, folklore, and the relationship between popular culture and modern art.
PROJECTS
Group exhibition reconsiders Argentina’s surrealist artistic legacy from the unstable terrain of the contemporary world, displacing the human as its privileged subject and tracing agency across bodies, technologies, ecologies, matter, other forms of life, and invisible forces.