The Alebrijes by Leonardo Linares

Folk art is no longer a lesser art form; we realize this almost immediately upon seeing it. It is an art that dwells within the material, which is inherited in workshops, which transforms from generation to generation, and that, from its own unique perspective, challenges, moves, and transcends. It is an art that, like all art, needs no permission to exist.

Today we pause to consider the work and career of Leonardo Linares Vargas, a master papier-mâché artist, heir to a tradition that his grandfather, Don Pedro Linares, elevated to the status of a universal language with the creation of alebrijes. Leonardo is an artist who has successfully brought papier-mâché to a place of contemporary artistic reflection, without breaking with its roots, but rather deepening them.

Legacy as a living creation

Leonardo engages in dialogue with his heritage. His pieces are not copies of his grandfather’s or his father’s; they are responses, reworkings, the voice of an artist who fully and consciously assumes the weight of a tradition and chooses to continue creating from that foundation. Because a legacy, when alive, is not kept like a relic: it is reinvented as a work in progress.

And that moves us because we all, in some way, carry inheritances. Ways of doing things, ways of seeing, ways of relating to the world. The question, then, is not whether we have a legacy, but what we do with it. Whether we repeat it or transform it. Whether we keep it in a display case or engage it in conversation with our time.

The master’s of the craft as thought in action

In Leonardo’s papier-mâché, there is mastery of technique, and also thought. Each figure, each shape, each color is an aesthetic and conceptual decision. His creations—skulls, Judas figures, and alebrijes—are plastic discourses that speak of memory, social critique, identity, of who we are and who we could be. They are works that demand to be viewed with the same seriousness and reflection as any work of art. Because folk art is not the antithesis of high art; it is an art that, from its materiality and its origin, has much to say.

And perhaps that is why his work invites us to ask ourselves: what exists in our daily lives that deserves to be looked at with the same attention? What is there in our decisions, in our conversations, in the way we create, that has the density of a well-made work?

Purpose as the substance of the work

Leonardo works because there is something within him that needs to be expressed through his hands and materials. His pieces are manifestations of a consciousness that observes the world and translates it into fantastical forms. Irony, denunciation, celebration, wonder: everything finds its place in his creations.

And this speaks to something profound: when work is imbued with purpose, it ceases to be routine and becomes language. It ceases to be function and becomes expression. Not because it is nobler, but because it is more genuine.

Diversity as an aesthetic and human force

Alebrijes are hybrid, impossible creatures, born of boundless imagination. They are proof that diversity is not confusion, but fertility. That mixing, fusion, and the unexpected can give rise to forms the world has never seen before. This same force resides in human teams when they dare to be diverse, because diversity broadens perspectives, enriches dialogue, and opens possibilities that would otherwise remain hidden.

Leonardo Linares Vargas reminds us that folk art is a way of thinking. That tradition can be avant-garde. That a well-understood craft is a declaration of principles.

And in that reminder, there is an open invitation: to look at our own work with the same seriousness, the same passion and freedom with which he looks at his creation, to find, in what we do, our own way of creating.

Because in the end, we are all creators. Creators of teams, of cultures, of futures. And like all creators, we are called to make our work a work worthy of being admired.