Encountering a mirror-based work with spatial distortions in the typical style of Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) at the group show Pop, Politics, Punk at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City.

Some Highlights of Mexico City’s Art Week

Mexico City is one of the world’s few major megacities that, before last week, I had never set foot in. The city’s annual art week, including the 20th iteration of ZONAMACO MÉXICO ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO convinced me that it would be a worthwhile excursion from Miami.

Looking back on the week (Feb. 6-11), I can wholeheartedly recommend that art lovers and collectors of all levels consider a trip to “CDMX," especially during February’s art week, given the pleasant temperatures and concentration of high-quality art exhibitions and events across the capital.

Trusting my own instincts, I spent the bulk of time exploring on my own, following a rough program of gallery, fair, and museum visits, while allowing plenty of time to wander and serendipitously discover. I was rewarded not only by great art spectating, but also by a flood of rich associative memories (visual, sensual, and olfactory) of trips to other major world metropolises, finding similarities with cities I’ve developed relationships with over the past 25 years, most notably among these: Moscow, Istanbul, Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Although still young by global standards, Mexico City is nonetheless a far more ancient cultural capital than anything north of the Rio Grande.

The story of how the city came to exist is absolutely wild: pre-Colombian civilizations identified the strategic and geographic advantages of the city’s location in the more than 6,500 ft high Mexico Valley a millenium ago, where remains of ice-age glaciers from the even higher mountain peaks surrounding it had melted to form a lake.

It was here that the Aztecs constructed their capital, Tenochtitlan, amassing considerable wealth and technological expertise, not to mention a rich cache of art of their own, much of which has been preserved at Mexico City’s massive National Museum of Anthropology.

When the Spanish arrived and subjugated the Aztec Empire in 1521, they chose to establish their capital on top of the former city, draining the lake bed and constructing Spanish-style buildings, which nonetheless themselves carried echoes of styles imposed by those who had previously subjugated them — i.e. Arabic-speaking North Africans, who in turn had borrowed their own architectural aesthetic from the Byzantines and Romans before them.

Model and depiction of the pre-Columbian city of Tenochtitlan, located on a lake in the Mexico Valley on the exact site of today’s CDMX (the lake was drained by the Spanish in the 16th century), seen at the world-class National Museum of Anthropology.

One of the remarkable experiences I had touring Mexico City’s galleries and museums was how much the spaces, with their open-air courtyards, some of which had been constructed well before anything standing today in the United States, reminded me of those I had frequented in Damascus, Syria, during a two-month stay in 2010. The warm and dry climate of both cities is more than coincidental, while also revealing cultural and historical preferences that tie deeply back to the past.

That being said, Mexico City’s art scene on the whole, beyond its wealth of pre-Colombian artifacts and collections of Eurocentric antiques and furnishings paying homage to the city’s 300 year reign as Spain’s administrative capital for the New World, is refreshingly “modern.”

By this I mean that the contemporary Mexican taste for fine art sees more rooted in the art movements of the 20th century; this proved a welcome change of pace, compared to cities like New York, Miami, or Los Angeles, whose top collectors generally prefer to surround themselves with post-war & contemporary art.

A lot of the art I saw for sale at fairs and in galleries was a good bit cheaper than what you would normally find in an American gallery or fair. Some of the emerging artists whose work I liked best had never shown in the States; however, at least one Peruvian gallery represented an artist I liked told me that they try to gain traction with new artists at February’s CDMX fairs first before showing them at Miami’s art week in December.

As is typical for me when I dive into art for four our five days at a time (I walked as much as possible, averaging nearly 25,000 steps a day) I am left with too much to share in just one email.

What follows is a selection of some artworks that caught my eye in the city last week — much of it by Mexican artists.

Oil on canvas painting by Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg (b. 1936), an iconic artist whose work, while rooted in Mexico’s 20th-century obesstion with Surrealism, struck me as surprisingly contemporary, futuristic, and (mildly) psychedelic. Seen at a booth at Zona Maco.

Hugo Robledo, *Torre de agua sobre espejo* (2021), for sale at Salon Acme art fair — a bargain at only $4075 — from CDMX’s Daniela Elbahara Gallery. This work channels modernist influences reminiscent of Charles Sheeler as well as something uniquely 21st century —simultaneously structural and emotional.

Interior view of the Palace of Fine Arts with socialist-realist mural by Mexican national artistic hero David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974), who alongside Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco was one of the most important Mexican muralists.

Painting with ancient Aztec motifs by Rodrigo Pimentel (1945-2022) seen in his retrospective Transmutations at the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL).

Santos Balmori (1899-1992), *Minotaur*, seen as part of his retrospective *La huelle indeleble* at the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL). Powerful, energetic, and modern.

Alejandra España, *Fosiles Fantasma* (2023), oil on canvas, curated among the treasures of the Museo Franz Mayer in her show En el sueño la vigilia. This neo-surrealist-ish work struck me as exceptional. Alejandra is represented by CAM Galeria, Mexico City.

Amauri Rafael Sanabria Urban, *Elestrombus*, a fanciful papier-mache sculpture on display at the excellent Museo de Arte Popular. Mexico proudly incorporates folk art influences into its outlook on “high” art and has successfully exported many of its manifestations (i.e. Day of the Dead skull-masks) as powerful cultural icons.

Jose Bribiesca Ruvacalba (1915-1959), *México lindo* (c. 1953) in the collection of Museo Soumaya, founded by Mexican multibillionaire Carlos Slim. a cross between a pin-up and socialist realist portrait of a national female item. The title makes reference to a famous Mexican mariachi song with nationalist sentiment.

I also saw great work by non-Mexican and internationally renowned artists. This was a treat unto itself: some Mexican galleries now have outposts in the U.S. and international galleries have opened their branches in Mexico City (although interestingly enough, none of the “mega galleries” have done so thus far — one wonders when this will change.)

The pleasant atmosphere, availability of prime, sun-dappled gallery spaces at affordable prices, and Mexico City’s growing international reputation for cultural tourism all contribute to a bright future for the visual art market in this city.

One example of just how fast the art scene is growing here: one of my classmates from Sotheby’s Institute, Elisabeth Johs (who just turned 30), opened her own gallery in Mexico City only two years ago and has already gained critical acclaim as one of the better non-Mexican-owned galleries in town. I enjoyed attending the opening of her show of new paintings by 20-something-year-old painter Emil Sands.

Before I conclude this newsletter, a few more favorite artworks follow: