About Papayon
Artist Bio
Papayon (Roberto Fernando Salmon) is a U.S.-born Latin American contemporary artist whose work emerges from personal rupture and reinvention. His art doesn’t follow traditions — it breaks them. Each piece is a battle between inner chaos and creative clarity, forged from the decision to transform pain into process.
Through mediums like encaustic, spray paint, dirt, recycled materials, and cyanotype, Papayon builds raw, symbolic landscapes that confront themes of resilience, faith, trauma, and identity. His surfaces are imperfect, his gestures deliberate. There is no decoration here — only confrontation, reflection, and emotional weight.
Based in Houston and deeply connected to Mexico, Papayon creates from lived experience. Years of internal struggle, depression, and self-reclamation fuel a body of work that is unfiltered, vulnerable, and alive. His art is not a response to the world — it’s a reckoning with it.
Papayon’s work has been exhibited across the U.S. and Mexico, featured in media, fashion collaborations, and cultural programs. More than an artist, he is a voice for transformation — creating not to impress, but to impact.
Artist Statement
Nothing in my work is accidental. Every stroke, every material, every texture is a declaration. My canvases aren’t meant to be pretty; they are meant to be battlegrounds—places where rebellion collides with vulnerability, where discomfort breeds reflection.
For over 4 years, I fought my own mind, waking up every day with the thought of ending it. Instead, I made a choice—to turn pain into process, struggle into structure, chaos into art. That choice is what defines my work.
I paint resilience, not as a polished ideal, but as the brutal, unfiltered clash of fear, doubt, and the fragile hope that keeps us moving. I explore self-worth, anger, madness, inequalities, comparison—the emotional landscapes we pretend not to see.
Spray paint, soil, recycled plastic—anything can be a medium, because everything is a message. My art doesn’t aim for comfort. It aims to unsettle, to disrupt, to demand engagement.
Art is my truth. And my truth is imperfect, defiant, and alive.
Exhibition List
- Restaurant Wall Art Collaborations
My signature style has adorned the walls of eateries across various locales, infusing them with a global artistic allure.
- Fashion Show Collaboration
Merging graffiti art and haute couture, I've brought a unique artistic perspective to designer wear, redefining the boundaries between art and fashion.
Media Coverage
- Engagements with Mexican consuls in the US have amplified my artistic presence and recognition.
- Features in local and international media, including TV interviews, magazine articles, blogs, and podcasts, have highlighted my journey and influence in the art world.
- The Artist Stoop: Papayon Interview
- Arts Council Park City Latino Arts Festival
- AZ Central - Must see Arts events in Metro Phoenix
- El Imparcial - Estilos - Magazine interview
- Consulate interview Little Rock, Arkansas
- Tucson.com 4th Avenue Street Fair
- 88.1 Radio Station - La voz del Pitic Papayon Interview
- Ida y Vuelta TV interview
- Tucson.com 4ht Avenue Winter Art Fest
- Viva la Irresestance, Solo Exhibition Interview
- Cafe Cultural Phoenix, AZ Consulate Interview
- Saatchi Art Papayon Artworks
- Peggy Papayon Artworks
Contact Information
- Email: roberto@papayonofficial.com
- Phone: (480) 791 8067
- Instagram: @papayonoficial