Joe Fernández Carrasco

By LatAm ARTE

Joe Fernández Carrasco, known artistically as ZELVA Uno, is a Peruvian visual artist, muralist, and cultural manager born in 1988 in Huacho, north of Lima. He has been drawing, painting, traveling, and immersing himself in nature for over fifteen years, drawing his greatest inspiration from the Amazon rainforest and its living cultures. He founded the organization Amazonarte Perú, which works to rescue, preserve, and share indigenous traditions and ancestral knowledge through large-format murals, urban art festivals, and other artistic practices. ZELVA Uno creates works of urban art and illustration that celebrate Amazônia’s biodiversity, the customs of Amazonian peoples, and the interconnectedness between humanity and nature. His works include large murals, portfolio illustrations, digital art, and mixed media pieces. He often participates in street art festivals and mural projects across Peru and has also done work in other countries, always with the intention of bringing visibility to indigenous voices and environmental messages. As an educator, he teaches what he calls “portrait with nature in watercolor,” fragmenting portraits with natural elements to create new forms of identity, memory, and connection. His first solo exhibition, titled Habitantes de la Selva , was shown in Pucallpa and highlights his close relationship with Amazonian communities he’s lived and worked with over the past decade. ZELVA Uno’s artistic mission blends activism and aesthetics: his murals are visual poetry, calling for love, respect, and defense of living cultures of the Amazon and the natural world.