Mexico City Art Week 2023: Must See Exhibitions
Alicja Kwade, Nairy Baghramian, and Jesùs R. Soto are among the artists exhibiting in the city during Zona Maco this year.
SUPERFLEX, We Are All In The Same Boat (2018). Courtesy SUPERFLEX.
The art world pivots towards the Mexican capital next week ahead of contemporary art fair Zona Maco.
The fair gathers 133 galleries and projects from 8 to 12 February, including ALZUETA (Barcelona), Hauser & Wirth (Zurich), Pi Artworks (Istanbul), Sabrina Amrani (Madrid), Sundaram Tagore (New York), Capsule Shanghai (Shanghai), and Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea (Milan).
Another 67 galleries—including Tomio Koyama (Tokyo), Revolver Galleria (Buenos Aires), and Lodos (Mexico City)—will participate in rival fair Feria Material, which has its VIP preview on 9 February and opens to the public from 10 to 12 February.
Galleries and institutions in the city have timed major exhibitions to coincide with Mexico City Art Week.
On 7 February, German-Polish artist Alicja Kwade's exhibition Silent Matter opens at OMR from 6 to 10pm. Works in the show include polished obsidian illuminated with designer lamps and a mobile weighted with stones and glass.
Galeria Hilario Galguera's Bosco Sodi exhibition Alabanzas also opens on 7 February. Among other works, it features an installation of eight burlap sacks and three clay spheres coated in gold.
MASA Gallery will present dual solo shows by Mario Garcia Torres and Brian Thoreen, whose pieces include a chair made of folded and stacked neoprene, from 8 February to 8 April.
And on 11 February, Iranian-born artist Nairy Baghramian's exhibition Modèle Vivant opens at kurimanzutto, while Galería RGR presents mesmerising multimedia paintings by Venezuelan artist Jesús R. Soto.
Among institutions, the David Chipperfield-designed Museo Jumex is showing Minerva Cuevas: Game Over and the Lari Pittman retrospective Lo Que Se Ve, Se Pregunta through 26 February.
The Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) continues with French-Swiss artist Ben Vautier's solo show Death Isn't Real through 2 April, and Graphic Turn: Like the Ivy on the Wall, which explores politically motivated street art in Latin America, through 28 May. New exhibitions by Francis Alÿs and Gala Porras-Kim open on 11 February.
Built on the collection of Rufino Tamayo, the Tamayo Museum continues with exhibitions by Mexican artists Tania Pérez Córdova and Miguel Calderón, and Brooklyn-born Raphael Montañez Ortiz.
Lakeside cultural centre LagoAlgo will open its third exhibition, which is co-curated by Creative Director Jérôme Sans and OMR's Cristobal Riestra, on 10 February.
Desert Flood features works by Swiss artist Claudia Comte, Mexico's Gabriel Rico, and Danish collective SUPERFLEX, whose illuminated sign We Are All In The Same Boat (2018) is pictured top. —[O]