Contemporary Mexico City is a bit like early-aughts Berlin: a chaotic yet profoundly mystical metropolis where syncretism and modernity coexist in perfect harmony.
Its arts scene, far from being confined solely to museums and galleries, thrives in the public realm: An Alexander Calder sculpture—one of the largest in the world—sits outside a major stadium; a wall carved by Isamu Noguchi hides inside the Abelardo L. Rodriguez Market; a Salvador Dalí piece graces the entrance of a Polanco mall; and Mathias Goeritz’s amber stained glass illuminates the Metropolitan Cathedral.
“It’s a very particular country of contrasts and eclecticism, a country where pastiches of architecture, art, and imagination are created,” the ceramic artist Renata Petersen, a native of Guadalajara, tells me. “It is very common to see old churches with renovations in French Gothic, Baroque, or neoclassical style, although you can still see remnants of the pre-Hispanic styles.”
Trying to understand Mexico simply as a geographical space would be misguided: Its cultural impact has far exceeded its physical limitations. In the words of Mexican gallerist Hilario Galguera, “Mexico is an idea, an idea that permeates everywhere.” Its spirited imagery has fueled the dreamlike scenarios of figures from Salvador Dalí to André Breton.
On a recent morning, as jacarandas blossomed all around, a closed-for-installation notice hung on virtually every gallery door across town. In a few weeks the city would be completely covered in pale indigo, signalling the anticipated return of Mexico City Art Week.
Programmed from February 5 through 9 this year, the art week has seen some 90 spaces throughout Mexico City transformed for the occasion, their various exhibitions highlighting Mexico’s extraordinary artistic heritage—and constant reinvention.
“I’m not intending to build a bridge between America and Europe,” says Galguera, a longtime fixture of the local creative scene. “I’m building a bridge between Mexico and the world.” Thirty years ago, he played an important part in the shift from Mexican muralism to a more globally minded contemporary art, showing Donald Judd, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alexander Calder at a time when Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Frida Kahlo still dominated the Mexican art market. “People started noticing there was life beyond borders, and my job as a gallerist has always been to offer my clients new ways of reading the world,” he says. Now, he’s showcasing Issa Salliander’s collaboration with Den of Wolves, a juxtaposition of physical painting and video-game pixels.
Zona Maco, one of the week’s main fairs, expects to draw more than 80,000 visitors to its exhibitions this year. “We are increasingly seeing works with themes of environmental awareness, digital technologies, and connections to Latin American artistic traditions,” observes founder Zélika Garcia. “We are excited to see more interdisciplinary collaborations and a greater presence of emerging artists working with experimental media.”
Here, all the galleries, museums, and fairs you can’t miss if you’re in Mexico City this week.
Renowned Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, whose distinctive vision of the ordinary shaped the contemporary art scene of the 1990s, takes over Museo Jumex with “Politécnico Nacional,” his first major survey in a Mexican museum since 2006. Composed of nearly 300 pieces, the show draws a line from Orozco’s earliest bodies of work to his most recent installations, spanning photography, painting, sculpture, and even video. These include the highly controversial Empty Shoe Box, from 1993, previously exhibited at the Tate Modern, MoMA, and the Venice Biennale—where people threw money at it in bemusement.
Nestled in the heart of CDMX’s Roma Norte neighborhood, the Olivia Foundation houses one of the most impressive private art collections in the city, focused mainly on abstract art from the postwar era onward. (Its Porfiriato-era building, recently reimagined by acclaimed architects Alberto Kalach and Carlos Zedillo, was initially constructed as a private residence.)
This week the foundation’s exhibition, “Woman in a Rowboat”, features artists such as Willem de Kooning, Anselm Kiefer, and Anna Weyant, while Sabine Moritz’s “Ara,” at the same site, represents her first solo show in Mexico.
A former textile factory houses the studio of La Metropolitana, a Mexican design firm whose furniture fills the buzziest restaurants around, from local gems to Michelin-starred destinations like Carsten Höller’s Brutalisten in Stockholm. Now, the brand unveils a groundbreaking collaboration with conceptual artist Marina Abramović, “Elephant in the Room,” a series of chairs made of cocobolo, Rosa Morada wood, and reclaimed copper. The pieces represent the performer’s first foray into design.
“Chapter VII: Shifting Grounds” marks the seventh iteration of Algo, a group exhibition reflecting on both society’s relationship with nature and the consequences of voluntary and involuntary migration. Featured artists include the duo Elmgreen & Dragset, the British collective Troika, Adel Abdessemed, Julius von Bismarck, and Nohemí Perez. Set inside a Brutalist structure at the heart of Chapultepec Park with a breathtaking lake view, the exhibition’s very location serves to underscore its primary message.
How do we deal with reality when machines have overtaken so many aspects of our daily lives? Norwegian-German artist Yngve Holen offers one compelling perspective. For “Furrow,” his first solo exhibition in Mexico, Holen presents a series of works referencing local natural resources, including a set of bronze sculptures modeled after agave plants. The show interrogates the economic relationship between nature and product, prompting viewers to reconsider the value we assign to both.
The biggest art fair in Latin America, Zona Maco continues to set the pace for contemporary art in the region. “We strive to listen to our audiences, the participating galleries, the collectors who visit us, and, of course, the curators of each edition, who provide a key perspective on what is happening in the global art scene,” says founder Zélika Garcia ahead of the fair’s 21st edition.
Haegue Yang returns to Mexico City with “Arcane Abstractions,” a continuation of her commitment to promoting cultural heritage through collaboration. Her central pieces present a reinterpretation of traditional Japanese and Slavic tools, anchored by Mesmerizing Mesh (2024), an exploration of the use of mulberry paper in sacred rituals.
The collaborative installation “Masa x Luhring Augustine Vol. 2” pairs Mexican artists Alma Allen, Héctor Esrawe, and Renata Petersen with Pipilotti Rist, Eva LeWitt, and Diego Singh, respectively, giving rise to works with blown glass and other industrial materials as their primary mediums.
Paloma Contreras Lomas and Carolina Fusilier transform the museum, which houses Diego Rivera’s vast collection of pre-Hispanic objects, into the set of a B-horror film for “¿Cómo se escribe muerte al sur?,” a whimsical and immersive examination of death and decay.
Acclaimed Mexican artist Bosco Sodi is behind Sabino 336, a space where Sodi’s personal studio and the Casa Wabi Foundation have joined forces to champion the principles of civic ecology. Here, monumental paintings in green and Sodi’s signature red steal the scene, crafted from a textural mix of sawdust, glue, and water—a nod to the beauty hidden within imperfection.
At this emerging contemporary-art gallery, British artist Jo Dennis presents “A Glass of Absinthe,” comprising 13 works made of bedsheets, military-tent fabrics, and other tactile materials—a viscerally evocative exploration of life and mortality.
The vibrant Juárez neighborhood is lit up again by Feria Material, a contemporary-art fair that will bring together 72 exhibitors from 20 countries—more than half of them from Latin America. Although the fair itself only runs from Thursday through Sunday, Material Monday kicked off three days earlier, offering guided tours through the 14 Mexico City galleries participating during the weekend, including Peana, Galería Mascota, and Saenger Galería.
One of Mexico City’s must-see landmarks is being transformed into a cultural center by architect Fernando Romero. The equestrian complex, originally designed by architect Luis Barragán, will now host annual exhibitions on its patio during art week, with a performance by Marina Abramović launching the program. Romero’s plans for the new campus include a series of temporary site-specific installations, a permanent exhibition dedicated to Barragán’s archive, and an artist residency set to open this fall.