Sebastian Curi talks 'Cultura Sin Limites' for Hulu's Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month

ByAndres Rovira and Yliana Roland OTRC logo
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Hulu's Hispanic Heritage campaign sees a culture without limits
Hulu's Hispanic Heritage campaign sees a culture without limitsSebastian Curi, Hulu's featured artist for Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month, talks about the campaign from his home studio in Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES -- This Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month, Hulu partnered with Sebastian Curi, an artist born in Argentina and currently based in Los Angeles. Curi created custom visuals for their "Cultura Sin Limites" (culture without limits) campaign, which seeks to amplify the free, uninhibited and diverse nature of Hispanic and Latino culture while underscoring shared and unique qualities of the dozens of ethnic groups across Latin America.

Born in 1986, Curi started his artistic journey through music.

"It was around 8 or 12," he said. "It wasn't about drawing, it was more about playing instruments. I had, like, a fictional rock band with my brothers."

Knowing a fictional band is nothing without visuals, Curi began experimenting with graphic design, creating flyers, t-shirts, and album art for their fictional gigs. Slowly, as design programs evolved in the early 2000s, Curi found himself developing a colorful style that would become his hallmark as a visual artist.

He describes his approach to drawing as a physical experience.

"You grab a pencil, you have paper, and connecting line with line is kind of like a game," he said. "It's a puzzle."

This playful, puzzle-like quality is evident in his illustrations, which often depict quirky, colorful figures in dynamic compositions.

For Curi, communication through visual art became a necessity due to his struggles with verbal expression.

"When I say that my hands speak better than my mouth... I struggle a lot with speaking," he explains. "I'm not a big speaker. I enjoy being an artist because I'm on a table drawing with myself alone, and I really enjoy that studio moment."

Despite these challenges, Curi has built an impressive career.

"It is incredible to think where I started, you know?" he said. "And the possibilities that I have now, working for Disney. I'm just proud and really grateful."

His work for Hulu's "Cultura Sin Limites" campaign allowed him to further explore his individual and collective identity as a Latino artist.

"'Cultura Sin Limites' to me presented a challenge," he said. "I wanted to create a body of work that will represent us, the whole Latino community, represent the way that we connect with each other."

He went on to add that this focus on community is central to his work, "I feel there's something about Latinos that we extend our families. You know, you have your mom, your dad, your brother, and then you have friends. We're very warm, we're very friendly, we're very open."

Sharing in his artistic success is Curi's fellow artist and wife Macarena Luzi. In youth, Curi and Luzi met through Macarena's brother, Matthias, who formed a band with Curi as teenagers.

"One day I went to her house and her mom opened the door and was like, 'Today, there is no rehearsal, Matthias is not here,'" Sebastian remembered with a smile. "And I was like, 'No, actually, I want to talk with Macarena. We're going to grab a coffee or something.' I didn't know what to say there, and it was that moment we were like, 'What is he doing here?' You know?"

His wife added with a smile, "We got to be a bit friendly. And then we fell in love."

Luzi, whose work focuses on collage and "creating through play," shares a similar emphasis with her husband on family, community, and expressive art.

"Coming from South America, we're very much into expressing our feelings, how family is so important, how community is so important, and we don't hold back," she said.

Luzi's work, which spans collage, illustration and painting, is characterized by bright colors and bold, abstract gestures.

"I use a lot of bright colors, big gestures," she said. "Everything is moving. I don't give myself limits."

Like Curi, Luzi believes in building a supportive community around herself.

"If I were to give advice to somebody that wants to do art: surround yourself with good friends, good people," she said. "Look for artists that you admire, try to ask questions."

Together, Sebastian Curi and Macarena Luzi are not only partners in life and art, but in painting the full picture of a limitless, colorful Latino culture.

Watch ABC's On The Red Carpet Storytellers Spotlight interview with Sebastian Curi in the video player above.

Nzinga Blake, Luke Richards and Jason Honeycutt contributed to this report.

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