Alfredo Zalce, muralist, painter, printmaker, draughtsman, designer, sculptor, and ceramist, was born on 12 January 1908 in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Both his parents, Ramon Zalce and María Torres Sandoval, were professional photographers. In 1914, due to the Revolution, the family moved to Mexico City were Zalce completed his education at the age of sixteen-years-old. He then enrolled in the Academy of San Carlos were his studied from 1924 until 1929. His teachers were Germán Gedovius, Leandro Izaguirre, Sóstenes Ortega and Carlos Dublán. Zalce returned to the Academy in 1931 and learned lithography from Carlos Mérida and Emilio Amero.

Zalce was the first director of the Escuela de Pintura y Escultura in Taxco in 1930 and, in 1933, he became a member of LEAR (Liga de Escritores y artistas Revolucionarios) and remained active until 1937. That same year, he co-founded, with Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O'Higgins and Luis Arenal, the famous El Taller de Gráfica Popular (TGP). During his ten years there he produced many prints addressing social, political and economic issues. Zalce painted the first colored cement mural in Mexico in 1932 and later did several fresco murals in Mexico City and Michoacán.

In 1945, Zalce produced eight lithographs for Estampas de Yucatan and, the following year, he created forty color engravings to illustrate El Sombreron by Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano and Kinchil by Martin Luis Guzman.

His works have been included in Twenty Centuries of Mexican Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1940; Contemporary Mexican Art which traveled to Lilly, Lyon and Toulouse, France in 1958; Images of Mexico at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1987; and 50 Años del Taller de Gráfica Popular also in 1987 which traveled to various venues.

In 1932 Zalce had his first solo exhibition. Retrospective exhibitions were mounted at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in 1948, 1962, and 1995. Retrospectives were also organized by the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City in 1981; the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago in 1987; and Bellas Artes in Mexico City in 1995.

After declining the National Art Award twice, Zalace decided to accept it on 25 February 2002 and was awarded it personally by President Vicente Fox. He became a member of the Academia de Artes in March of 2002.

Alfredo Zalce died on 19 January 2003 in Patzcuaro, Mexico.