Benjamin Puma (@monfucat1), is a visual artist and cultural manager born in Lima, Peru, who currently resides in Oakland, CA.
He began from a very young age in the world of graffiti, began to make letters under the pseudonym “Beep” and was active in the events that took place inside and outside his city. This path made his way into the organized Hip Hop scene, an autonomous movement that brought together different collectives of the movement with a political approach, mostly articulated with other social and cultural organizations, which would later be his school and beginning in cultural management.
He studied the career of graphic design and advertising, while developing as an activist within his community, developing different activities in favor of her. Among those that stand out the most, the Somos La 30 festival, a cultural artistic event hosted by the district of Villa Maria del Triunfo, within the city of Lima. Through this project he has been able to provide different conversations, presentations and workshops for children and young people in different cultural spaces of his city and also outside it.
Likewise, in recent years he has been experimenting in the elaboration of scenography and setting, mainly with recycled materials, for different events and activations in which he was requested, in addition to those he also produced.
After moving to the Bay Area two years ago, he continued teaching art to children and young people at Tradicion Peruana Cultural Center. He also started his own brand Monfu Project, a project with which he plans to create new spaces and opportunities for artists and art lovers.
Being a self-taught artist, who is dedicated to painting and digital art, he has put into practice different techniques and styles, both in his murals, graffiti, paintings on canvas, illustrations, and more recently in screen printing and linocut. He adapts his works to his own concept and currently finds inspiration in the elements of his country and in the synergy that surrounds psychedelia and mysticism within the different ancestral cultures of ancient Peru.