Carlo Canún is a graphic designer, artist and writer based in Mexico City. He works producing books, ephemera, visual identities, exhibition displays, websites, texts, between others. In 2023 he completed a Master of Arts in Graphic Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts.
His work delves into forms of language and storytelling, examining methods of knowledge production through various mediums of publication and forms of dissemination. Utilizing words, ephemera, objects, and clothing, his exploration extends beyond visual culture and production into distribution models, archival systems, and categorizations, specifically within queer narratives, where the generation of knowledge arises from a demand to reinvent the conventional.
He works and collaborates with other designers such as Alexandra Margetic, Estudio Margem, Greta Þorkelsdóttir, Laura Pappa, Maru Calva, Rosen Eveleigh, Santiago da Silva, and Santiago Martínez Alberú.
Studies
Master of Arts in Graphic Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, 2021–2023
Teaching
Mensaje Visual (The Visual Message). Centro de diseño, cine y televisión, Mexico City, 2023 - present
Small Town, Big Hell. Workshop imparted with Alexandra Margetic and Mark Foss for the Graphic Design BA program at the Estonian Academy of arts, Tallinn, 2023
Ongoing projects
Maricoteca, with César González Aguirre. Self-managed archive dedicated to the material culture of sex-diverse lives in Mexico and Latin America, 2025
Archivo de Realidades. A public space for publishing, 2024
Infected lexicon of language. A queer lexicon published through wearables, 2023
Exhibitions and events
Launching event for Excercises in Practical Mischievery 7, 8 and 9. Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn, 2025
Display Garden Display (group exhibition). Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn, 2023
El orden de los libros. Aeromoto, Mexico City, 2022
An Ephemeral Trace. EKA GD MA Drama, Tallinn, 2022
The Order of Books. Lugemik Library, Tallinn, 2021
Launching event for Excercises in Practical Mischievery 4, 5 and 7. Tallinn; REDO, Prishtina; and San Serriffe, Amsterdam, 2023
Writing
“Body of text,” for Dunce Magazine IV, 2025
“Shooting Twice,” for current commons edited by Vincent Becher, 2025
“Glory Holes,” Spanish edition, published by Tumbalacasa Ediciones, 2025
“The memory of our library,” for Suave 6 edited by Santiago Matínez Alberú, 2025
“How I read being gay,” for Leida edited by Taavi Hallimäe, 2024
“Nightability,” for Catalog edited by Lieven Lahaye, 2024
“Glory Holes,” published by EKA GD MA, 2023
“Sentences that seem like prophecies,” for EKA GD MA at Index Art Bookfair, 2023
“The rest of the seeds,” for Shift, 2022
“Re-enactment,” for All horses are the same colour edited with Rita Davis and Lieven Lahaye, 2022
Self-publishing and editing
Making Thought: an interview with Hélène Smith, #7 in the series “Exercises in Practical Mischievery” edited by Aubrie Savage, 2025
Infected Lexicon of Language, self-published, 2023–ongoing
Fabulations of Exiluity, self-published, 2023
Hanky Panky #1 with Alexandra Margetic, self-published, 2023
Encyclopedia of Creatures, People, Places, Events, Tools and Publications, #5 in the series “Exercises in Practical Mischievery” edited by Aubrie Savage, 2022
All horses are the same colour, edited with Rita Davis and Lieven Lahaye, published by EKA GD MA, 2022