( Note: My home for the next 8 days)
The Underground Collective is an artistic collective based in Oaxaca, Mexico, dedicated to the creation of graphic works, mural art and engraving with political and social content, in order to make visible the problems that affect marginalized communities. The group uses collaborative engraving and mural painting to continue the tradition of Mexican revolutionary art, addressing current struggles around indigenous rights, Afro-Mexican visibility, migration, and resistance to colonialism and capitalism.
Formed in 2021, the collective’s name refers to marginalized working communities and their goals of countering cultural erasure and recovering public spaces in front of global capital. Operate from La Casa Subterranea, a multifunctional space in downtown Oaxaca that functions as a workshop, gallery and free art school.
The Underground Collective continues the tradition of Mexican political engraving, begun before the Mexican Revolution and consolidated by artists such as Leopoldo Méndez, José Guadalupe Posada and Diego Rivera. The group is especially inspired by the Popular Graphic Workshop of the 1940’s, considered the “golden age” of Mexican graphics, and in the muralists José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Rivera.
The engraving resurfaced in Oaxaca in the wake of the 2006 conflict, when striking teachers demanding educational improvements were suppressed with state violence, leaving at least 17 dead. This context of political unrest and repression catalyzed a street art movement and engraving in the city, with multiple collectives responding to censorship and cultural erasure. This period reintroduced the engraving in Oaxaca after decades of shortage of presses, to the point that for 2017 the city was described as the “capital of Mexican engraving”.
The Underground Collective emerged from a mural painting workshop of the Community Artistic Workshop. This brought together art students and urban artists to develop skills in drawing, composition, and color theory, while producing works focused on social change. In July 2021, participants were formalized as an Underground Collective with six founding members.
The work addresses the political and social conditions of local communities, examining colonial and capitalist violence in Oaxaca, such as indigenous genocide, enslavement, and displacement of black populations during the colony, state repression, and the exploitation of resources by corporations.
The collective manages the School of Art for the People, a free school that serves children and young people from all over the state. It offers workshops on drawing, composition, color theory, engraving, and muralism. Courses emphasize both technical and narrative development and the ability to generate income through art.
Come and discover how hope is born from the ground up.
Explore their workshops, exhibitions, and works that give a face to Oaxacan resistance, and be part of a community that paints the future with commitment, memory, and freedom.
Collaborative projects / social activism.
We collaborate with communities and groups to carry out meaningful interventions. Participate in projects that transform space and message.
Commissions and community services
We create custom murals and graphics for businesses, institutions, and public spaces. Tell us your idea and we'll bring it to life on your wall.
Mario Guzmán Olivares, Founder, coordinator and master of engraving
Darinka Moher, Eric Pozos Vázquez, Salma Vidal , Arturo Santiago Luis, Mariana Guzmán Victoria, Oskar Diego; Partners
© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Subterráneos, Underground Collective or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Mario Guzmán Olivares, Founder, coordinator and master of engraving |
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