Pepi Garachico
I use art as a tool for transforming people and places.
I was born in 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From a very young age, art was present in my life; I drew all the time and everywhere. For a long time, it was my great hobby, and over the years it became the foundation of the trades I would develop later.
My childhood was spent between two opposing worlds: the hustle and bustle of the city of Buenos Aires and the calm of the landscapes of San Luis.
Piedrabuenarte Cultural Center
During my adolescence I also began to explore urban drawing and portraits, and I moved to the Comandante Luis Piedrabuena neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
The imposing, monumental, and futuristic architecture of this neighborhood impressed me and became my greatest source of inspiration. I began to portray it in drawings, paintings, murals, sculptures, and models; this was the first connection between my surroundings and my art.
In 2006, at the age of 22, I began the artistic transformation of the Piedrabuena neighborhood. In that context, I co-founded the Piedrabuenarte Cultural Warehouse , a multidisciplinary artistic project, from where I created more than 60 murals, many of them large-scale.
I transformed the neighborhood by creating a cultural landmark in the city and an open-air art gallery, where the neighborhood went from being featured in the police blotter to being featured in the cultural section, and dozens of tourists became a normal part of the neighborhood. At the same time, I began to develop as a lettering artist and tattoo artist, expanding the ways I could express myself artistically.
Boedo Artistic Group
In 2012, at the age of 28, I co-founded the Boedo Artistic Group , a muralist group created to represent the cultural identity of the neighborhood and the San Lorenzo de Almagro Athletic Club .
I started as the group's muralist and was able to train the rest of the team in the craft and large-scale art. Together we created more than 170 works : portraits of football and cultural legends, historical photos, and depictions of pivotal moments.
In this group, I was able to develop and experiment with diverse techniques and aesthetics. This experience also allowed me to take my art to various countries in Latin America and Europe . During this period, I trained in the traditional art of Fileteado Porteño under the guidance of master fileteador José Espinosa, and I also began to explore the art of Catalan Trencadís , a technique with which I created more than 15 ceramic murals.
Present
Today, with more than 20 years of experience and more than 500 works spread across different parts of the world - including more than 300 large-scale murals and small-format pieces - I develop my art from Badalona and Boedo.
My current collections explore the identity of the territories that are part of my personal journey: Badalona, Catalonia, Gaudí and Boedo.
My vision is to take trencadís art to a new modernist stage, where the places I inhabit become the driving force behind the work. I draw deep inspiration from the places where I live—their history, their identity, their architecture—and it is from there that I build each piece.