Francisco Toledo

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Francisco Benjamin Lopez Toledo (b. 17 July 1940, Juchitán, Oaxaca, México) is the most important living Mexican graphic artist. He studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes de Oaxaca and the Centro Superior de Artes Aplicadas del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico, where he studied graphic arts with Guillermo Silva Santamaria. Graficas de Oaxaca (IAGO).

His social and cultural concerns about his home state led to his participation in the establishment of an important art library at the IAGO, and his involvement in the founding of the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca (MACO), the Patronato Pro-Defensa y Conservacion del Patrimonio Cultural de Oaxaca, a library for the blind, a photographic center, and the Eduardo Mata Music Library to name a few of his projects. Toledo's outstanding creativity has been expressed in pottery, sculpture, weaving, graphic arts, and paintings. He has had exhibitions in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Belgium, France, Japan, Sweden, the United States, as well as other countries. Toledo is simultaneously an exceptional artist and a patron and guardian of the arts and the crafts and architectural heritage of his state of Oaxaca.

For his social and cultural commitment to the development of his home state, he received the Mexican National Prize (1998), the Prince Claus Award (2000) and the Right Livelihood Award (2005).