Luis Rodriguez Naranjo

Luis Rodríguez Naranjo is a Mexican artist from La Piedad, Michoacán, whose practice is rooted in his family’s history of pig farming. For him, the pig represents far more than an economic activity: it is connected to childhood memories, family conversations, local culture, culinary traditions, and the social identity of his hometown. This personal heritage has become the foundation of his artistic language, in which the pig functions as a symbol of belonging, continuity, abundance, and transformation.

Rodríguez Naranjo makes the pig the visual and conceptual axis of his work through a process he describes as “pig-ifying” or “cerdifying.” He transforms objects, characters, everyday scenes, and external artistic proposals into porcine forms. These transformations may be direct and fully recognizable or subtle, retaining only the essential qualities of the original subject. His work is not intended as parody or mockery; rather, it uses benevolent irony to recreate and re-signify familiar images within his own porcine universe.

Curiosity has led Rodríguez Naranjo to engage with the visual languages of artists including Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Keith Haring. By adapting elements of their styles into his own practice, he expands the imaginative possibilities of porkification. Each work also operates as a mirror: viewers interpret the porcine imagery according to their own cultural backgrounds, emotional experiences, and associations with pigs. As a result, a work may appear poetic or harmonious to one viewer and grotesque or satirical to another.

His practice includes painting, conceptual installations, mixed-media works, prints, and artistic interventions. His major projects include , a series of 365 works, and . More recent projects have expanded his practice into installations, collaborations, art fairs, cultural events, and commercial products.

Rodríguez Naranjo has exhibited in Mexico, Italy, Costa Rica, and Denmark. His solo exhibitions and presentations include at Chiasso Perduto in Florence, Italy, in 2025, featuring eleven self-portraits and a conceptual installation; the Vaca Loca Mezcal Art Event and Exhibition in Guadalajara in 2025; and presentations at the 3Tres3 Experience Congress LATAM in San José, Costa Rica, and several Mexican pig-farming congresses between 2024 and 2025. Earlier solo exhibitions included venues in León, Lagos de Moreno, and La Piedad, where he presented selections from his major painting projects.

His collective exhibitions include BADA México in Mexico City in 2024, in Mexico City in 2025, in Guanajuato, and by Art 58 Gallery in Mexico City in 2022. He has also participated in exhibitions in Morelia, La Piedad, Lagos de Moreno, and Cruz de Huanacaxtle. Internationally, one of his works was included in at the Trapholt Museum of Art and Design in Kolding, Denmark, from 2016 to 2017.

Today, Rodríguez Naranjo continues to live and work in La Piedad. Through his “pig-ified” images, he transforms a family and regional legacy into a contemporary artistic practice that invites viewers to reconsider identity, cultural meaning, and their own ways of seeing.