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Art in Embassies Mexico
The Migrant Experience
3 MINUTE READ
April 12, 2023

Gilbert “Magu” Luján

Gilbert “Magu” Luján is one of the most iconic figures of the Chicano art movement.  The California native was a sculptor, muralist, and painter.  He founded Los Four, an artist collective that is attributed with brining the Chicano art movement to the mainstram.  Luján is famous for his use of colorful imagery, anthropomorphic animals, depictions of outrageously proportioned “lowriders”, Indigenous/urban motifs, graffiti, Dia De Los Muertos installation altars, and other items from pop culture.  Magu stated, “My art intentions, over the years, have been to use Mesoamerican heritage as well as implementing current popular Art and cultural folk sources as the content substance to make Chicanarte.”

Cruising Turtle Island, 1986

Screenprint on Paper, 39 × 51in. Courtesy of Dr. Gilberto Cárdenas Austin, Texas