Dr Lakra's blending of disparate graphic art material creates a streetwise surrealism that mixes Mexican folk art with a huge range of art historical material, such as head comix, medical diagrams, gang and military symbols, graffiti, sumo wrestlers, businessmen, and sculptures and skin motifs from African, Asian, and Pacific traditions.
Read MoreThe artist is unusual in the range of interests that his eclectic choice of images indicates, though he can be seen to ignore highly sensitive postcolonial issues of cultural ownership. In Untitled (1930) (2005) and Untitled (Renee Dumas) (2004), for example, Lakra mixes criminal underworld tattoos with traditional Māori moko in a way that could offend the original sources. In this sense, he reflects the 'anything goes' ethos of 1960s Haight-Ashbury.
However Dr Lakra, like his father, is a passionate fighter for indigenous rights, particularly those of the Zapotec people of the Oaxaca region. He also advocates for incarcerated people who are illiterate, for whom he helps with correspondence.
