Notes related to Mexico

By Manuel Vásquez Ortega

Bogotá and Mexico City are among the cities with the greatest bird diversity in the world: Bogotá is home to 550 species, while Mexico City has 365. Inspired by this observation, Mexican artist, poet, and educator Yunuen Díaz presented a series of ten habitable nests at the International Biennial of Art and the City, BOG25—a collaborative creation with basket weavers from Apulo, Colombia, installed in the plaza of the Gabriel García Márquez Cultural Center of the Fondo de Cultura Económica.

By Álvaro de Benito

The Fundación Casa de México in Spain hosts Re/Generación, a new installation from the Black Mirror / Espejo Negro series produced by Pedro Lasch (Mexico City, Mexico, 1975) and curated by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico (INAH). Originating from an initiative originally produced by the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham, North Carolina, in 2007, the series has been transformed through various techniques, evolving its language toward a narrative that makes it impossible to separate past and present, as well as spectator and proposal.

As part of the exhibition Gran Basamento at the Chapel of Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City, artist Deborah Castillo and composer Lanza present on October 10 the nano-opera Discursos para las masas (Speeches for the Masses) as the closing act of the show.

Opening on September 25, 2025, the exhibition examines drive, loss, and material transformation in the artist’s work.

By Álvaro de Benito

The Museum of America is hosting an exhibition of paintings by Juan Carlos Santoscoy (Guadalajara, Mexico, 1973) in its La Tapada gallery, open until the end of the month. Titled Algoritmos del caos (Algorithms of Chaos), the show features a selection of the artist’s most recent large-scale works, which engage with pressing themes in contemporary art such as global warming and the overexploitation of natural resources.

The exhibition The Tiger’s Coat explores the many facets of the Italo-Mexican artist—photographer, militant, and enigmatic figure—through a constellation of historical documents and contemporary artworks.

By Álvaro de Benito

The Casa de México Foundation in Spain presents Guadalupe. La Virgen de México (Guadalupe. The Virgin of Mexico), an extensive program of exhibitions and activities centered around one of Mexico's most iconic and anthropologically significant figures. In addition to lectures and various screenings, the program revolves around two main themes: craftsmanship and popular culture on one hand, and anthropology on the other.

By Álvaro de Benito

The Casa de México Foundation in Spain is hosting Cuando habla la luz (When Light Speaks), the first retrospective of Graciela Iturbide (Mexico City, 1942) since she received the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. Curated by Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera, the exhibition brings together 115 works spanning from 1972 to 2017.

The Fundación Casa de México in Spain presents the exhibition Lourdes Grobet y el Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Indígena, a selection of nearly seventy photographs from the project developed by Lourdes Grobet (Mexico City, Mexico, 1940–2022) around the Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Indígena (LTCI) (Peasant and Indigenous Theatre Laboratory).

Multidisciplinary artist Bárbara Sánchez-Kane (Mérida, Mexico, 1987) presents ¿Cuántos ángeles caben en la punta de un alfiler? (How Many Angels Fit on the Tip of a Pin?), her first solo show at Collegium—a center for the creation, research, and display of contemporary art, known for its residencies. With Sánchez-Kane’s project, Collegium inaugurates its new role as a museum. All the pieces, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy, were created on site, and their placement within the Church of San Martín fosters a dialogue with the building’s symbolic and historical character.

The Casa de México Foundation in Spain is hosting, through the second week of June, a must-see exhibition from the Jumex Collection—one of the most significant contemporary art collections in Latin America. Titled Éramos felices y no lo sabíamos (We Were Happy and Didn't Know It), the exhibition revisits the vibrant artistic scene of 1990s Mexico, offering a re-reading of one of the most dynamic periods in the country’s contemporary art history.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) presents Magali Lara: Stitched to the Body, an exhibition that examines a key moment in the career of pioneering Mexican artist.

Through the idea of an endless spiral, this exhibition at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) unfolds as a reverse retrospective of artist Magali Lara (Mexico City, 1956), beginning with two murals created especially for the show and tracing back to her earliest drawings from the 1980s and 1970s.

The Cultural Institute of Mexico in Spain hosts the exhibition Estrategias de recuperación (Recovery Strategies), featuring three recent projects by the photographer. Including the series Las flores mueren dos veces (Flowers Die Twice, 2021–2024), Palimpsesto (2024–2025), and Maíz (Corn) (2023–present), the Mexican photographer explores the elements and causes that create distortion and fragmentation in memory.

The exhibition brings together a group of eight artists whose work, though diverse in technique and approach, shares a common concern for social justice and historical memory.

Mexico has emerged as a significant contemporary art hub on the international stage. Since the inception of Zona Maco, Mexico City has become a key destination for cultural pilgrims, marking the start of the global art fair calendar.

Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, will present on March 15 the exhibition Vultures & Fireflies by Alejandro Galván; this is a painted chronicle of Mexico from the perspective of one of the largest working-class suburbs.

Located in KM 113 of the federal highway that connects Salina Cruz to Pinotepa Nacional, a remote creative jewel stands. Architecture, design, and art cohabit along this section of the Oaxacan coast. A mix of boutique accommodations, gastronomy, and contemporary art proposals enrich Puerto Escondido’s endowment of inspiration and creation.

The Mexican art scene is going through an exceptional moment. There is a palpable energy, with new galleries opening, others already consolidated in the process of expansion and Mexican artists and curators gaining more and more international visibility. Their presence in museums, biennials and global fairs continues to grow, consolidating Mexico as a key player in the contemporary art scene.

In her work, using traditional techniques such as oil painting, she explores contemporary imaginaries with a reflective approach to the relationship between memory, the body, image, and identity.

Paths of Life invites viewers on a journey through 45 years of the Mexican photographer's distinguished photographic career; the exhibition presents a captivating combination of previously unpublished images from the artist's personal archive along with her most recent works.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University presents Rubén Ortiz-Torres: Zonas de Colaboración, the artist’s first major solo exhibition in New York, curated by Betti-Sue Hertz.

The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) presents the work of French artist Kader Attia: A Descent into Paradise.

Gabriel O'Shea (Metepec, Mexico, 1998) manages to delve into that huge and apparent dichotomy between the technological and the human (or the future and the real) in his most recent proposal at Hilario Galguera's Madrid headquarters, a series of paintings of high conceptual content that critically debate on several technical and thinking aspects.

From February 1 to August 3, 2025, Museo Jumex presents Gabriel Orozco: Politécnico Nacional (Gabriel Orozco: National Polytechnic), the artist's first museum exhibition in Mexico since 2006; this survey explores key themes in the practice of the Mexican artist, who has constantly challenged what art can be and how it can be made. 

The Met’s bold new vision for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing –to be opened at 2030, presenting Modern and Contemporary art– is designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, the first woman to design a new wing in the Museum’s 154-year history.

The Pinta Miami 2024 edition -from December 5 to 8- presents proposals that enhance the Latin American gene. Arte al Día highlights four galleries from four Latin American countries: Petrus Gallery in Puerto Rico, Proyecto H in Spain and Mexico, Salar Gallery in Bolivia and Judas Gallery in Chile.

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University announces Leonora Carrington: Dream Weaver, the new exhibition opening on January 22, 2025. The exhibition, curated by Dr. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator, will feature over 30 of Carrington’s spellbinding artworks, loaned from private collections, which have rarely been on public display.

Fundación Casa de Mexico in Spain hosts the exhibition Modern Art of Mexico, with funds from the Blaisten Collection and curated by Daniel Garza Usabiaga, which takes an interesting look at the country's 20th century production through the eyes of Margarita Nelken (Madrid, Spain, 1894-Mexico City, Mexico, 1968).

Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) presents Coordenadas claras para nuestra confusión (Clear coordinates for our confusion), by artist Julieta Aranda. This exhibition proposes to review the artist's production of the last decades from the perspective of her collaboration with time, understood not only as an object of research but also as an autonomous and active interlocutor. It is curated by Alejandra Labastida.