[2] Through use of garbage and found objects assembled into sculptures, he created narratives of consumerism and censorship that he felt affected Argentina.
Heredia’s work dealt with contemporary political issues in Argentina, as well as more universal themes such as loneliness, love, death and existence.
His father Hector Heredia was a merchant, and his mother Margarita Matilde Tramullas was the daughter of a Spanish family that had first emigrated to France and later to Argentina in 1916.
He was there briefly before enrolling in the workshops of the National School of Bellas Artes where he met Horacio Juarez, who became his first sculpture professor and mentor.
[4] As his art evolved, some of the influences he attributed to his success included writings by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and thinkers such as José Ortega y Gasset.
He later became friends with Alberto Greco who influenced how he viewed art and life, and they would go out to perform vivo dito works together in Paris.
There is very little evidence of Heredia’s early figurative work because he entered the international art scene in 1948, after becoming acquainted with the Concreto-Invención group in Buenos Aires.
He developed his own technique of crafting art out of garbage materials and finding the expressive qualities of the trash that he used in a way that made sense to his work.
[4] After the Revolución Libertadora toppled the Perón regime in 1955, Heredia made art that reacted to the subsequent modernization and industrialization of Argentina.
This was a difficult time in Heredia’s life during which he began using plaster and wrappings in his art, recalling casts and bandages.
[10] Heredia’s art continued to explore political issues, speaking out against the consumerism, censorship, and crime that he felt was endemic in Argentina during the 60s and 70s.
[11] In many ways, his work in the late 60s and early 70s prophesied the years of terror that Argentina experienced in the Dirty War which continued into the 1980s.
He continued to speak out against Argentina’s government and rulers with his series of "Thrones" (1984) which consisted of throne-like structures placed on pedestals which questioned the role of authority and reduced positions of power.
"[8] Heredia is known for incorporating political themes such as "sardonic crosses and mummified national heroes" into his work,[25] which is often satirical.