Omar Castillo Alfaro is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist currently based in Paris. His artistic practice draws on his family and the legacy of traditional craftsmanship and ancestral knowledge that they acquired and passed on to him. Drawing inspiration from this heritage, the artist explores non-linear forms of storytelling. Castillo Alfaro uses history as a pretext to unearth, both literally and symbolically, the layers of his fragmented identity. These layers have been shaped by the socio-political processes that have marked his indigenous Nahuatl-Otomí region in Mexico from pre-Hispanic times to the present day.

The artist’s hands are his primary creative tool. They convey a bodily memory shaped by the gestures of his loved ones. He draws on his knowledge of the earth and clay, inherited from his grandmother; the craft of working with beeswax and candles, passed down by his mother; the art of working with feathers, linked to the ancestral practice of the Aztec amantecas; and stone carving, as his cousins and uncles are master stonemasons. Through all these elements, he constructs a material poetics closely linked to the myths and stories of his region.

Castillo Alfaro’s extensive research has led him to work directly with ethnographic museums such as the Quai Branly Museum (Paris), the Museo de América (Madrid) and the British Museum (London). This has enabled him to carry out critical research into the nomenclature of the archaeological artefacts he studies, as well as to refine his techniques, with the support and close collaboration of curators and researchers at these institutions.

He initially trained as a Metallurgical Chemist (UNAM, 2014), before going on to study art at the FAD-UNAM (2018) and Fine Art in Lyon, graduating in 2022. He has been awarded residencies at international institutions such as Gasworks, London (2026), Casa de Velázquez, Madrid (2024–2025), Villa Belleville (2024) and the Cité Internationale des Arts (2023). His work has recently been exhibited at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, MMAC Mexico (2026); PhotoEspaña, Tropiques Atrium, Martinique (2025); the Centre Pompidou-Metz, the Limburg Biennial (2024); the Ferme du Buisson, the Cité Internationale des Arts, the Salon de Montrouge, and 100% L’EXPO (2023); amongst others. He has been invited to stage his performances at the Reina Sofía Museum, the Gaîté Lyrique (2025) and the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2024). He has also been awarded the Magnetic Residency for the Fluxus Art Project (2026), as well as the 1st Young Talent Prize at ARCO Madrid (2025) and the Prix de Paris (2022).