Vetas

Juan Carlos Beltrán was born in 1991 in Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, surrounded by farmlands and the light of the northern desert. He founded Firma Norte, the studio through which he reconstructs—from memory—a Mexico that is both modernist and rural, at the intersection of photography and artificial intelligence. His work blends the visual language of Luis Barragán and Mathias Goeritz—figures of Mexican modernist architecture known for their colorful walls and sculptural use of light—with the iconography of charrería, the traditional Mexican equestrian art, through a hybrid process that combines generative composition and photographic craftsmanship. “My father had bought a camera for a family trip and never used it, so I took it,” he says. “I grew up in a family of tomato farmers. As a child, the countryside bored me; I didn’t yet appreciate the work involved. ” From this dual identity—between the farm and the city—emerges a body of work that is both serene and direct. “I like images that seem believable without being entirely possible, like memories you’re not sure ever existed,” he summarizes. A finalist in the AI Design Awards in Barcelona in 2025, he exhibits in the United States, the Netherlands, and Mexico, collaborates with Apple, and creates commissioned works for Tiffany & Co. His work has been featured in T Magazine México and AD France.