Zona Maco Art Week: Shows to See in 2021
Exhibition view: Minerva Cuevas, Utopista / quiauitl for Siembra 18 at kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2021). Courtesy the artist and kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. Photo: Gerardo Landa Romano.
Running between 27 April and 2 May 2021, Zona Maco Art week brings together a programme of art, design, photography, and antiques exhibitions across the Condesa, Juárez, Polanco, Roma, and San Miguel Chapultepec neighbourhoods of Mexico City. Ocula Magazine selects seven exhibition highlights from across the city.
Siembra
kurimanzutto, Gob. Rafael Rebollar 94, San Miguel Chapultepec, 11850
8 February 2020–ongoing
Since February 2020 and the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, kurimanzutto has taken the opportunity to reflect on its 20 years of existence, unravelling a series of projects within the gallery's seven rooms that are independent yet woven 'like sowing times in agriculture.'
Beginning with works by Haegue Yang, Gabriel Orozco, and Eduardo Abaroa, the exhibition's latest additions to be unveiled on 27 April 2021 include works by Damián Ortega, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, and Lorena Ancona, with new iterations to be added so long as the current conditions continue.
James Benjamin Franklin: Framed in Memory
Proyectos Monclova, Lamartine 415, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560
27 April–29 May 2021
A stunning series of paintings by James Benjamin Franklin can be found at Proyectos Monclova, for the American artist's first solo exhibition in Mexico City.
Eschewing the traditional canvas, Franklin plays with the tactility of painting through his use of materials including plaster, glitter, carpet, sand, and fabric scraps, among others. With their raised borders, his paintings capture the layers filling the space within, resembling 'a sunset in motion'.
Gabriel Rico: I may use an electric drill, but I also use a hammer
Galería OMR, Córdoba 100, Roma Norte, 06700
20 March–14 August 2021
Gabriel Rico's first solo exhibition with Galería OMR comprises a blend of seemingly disparate objects—including deer and oryx with inflated balls lodged in their antlers and polychrome oil painted sculptures placed atop a series of upright trunks of felled trees—that come together as a unified installation.
The exhibition is playful, with familiar motifs in his sculptures—including a bottle of Coca-Cola, cacti, and a T-bone steak—painted in popping colours informed by digital aesthetics.
Emma Bernhard: An Army
Galerie Nordenhake, Praga 33 Juarez, 06600
27 April–15 May 2021
Swedish artist Emma Bernard brings a new series of paintings and sculptures to Galerie Nordenhake, drawing together recycled materials in slick, eye-catching compositions.
Having received a BA in philosophy prior to her studies in painting and sculpture, her works have an existential concern, giving new life to cast-away objects in meditative assemblages. Through this approach, Bernhard provides her materials with renewed purpose and describes them 'as things in need of care'.
Jorge Satorre and ASMA: Things happen in a silent way
Labor, Francisco Ramírez #5, Col. Daniel Garza, Miguel Hidalgo, 11830
27 April 2021–ongoing
In collaboration with the exhibition platform PEANA, Labor brings together work by artist duo ASMA—comprising Matías Armendaris and Hanya Belia—along with Mexican artist Jorge Satorre.
Primarily working in the medium of drawing, Satorre layers fictive elements in his renditions of historical records and moments, here departing from illustrations by Miguel Covarrubias along with his own personal archive from his teenage years. In ASMA's collaboration, the artists synthesise their respective sculpture and painting practices into a series of organic shapes possessing uncanny elements.
Luis Miguel Suro
Galería Enrique Guerrero, General Juan Cano 103, San Miguel Chapultepec, 11850
27 April 2021–ongoing
Fifteen years after their last exhibition of the late Luis Miguel Suro's work, Galería Enrique Guerrero present a selection of oil on canvas floral paintings and ceramic guns rendered in surreal shapes.
Suro's family owned a ceramic factory in Guadalajara, which informed the unique blend of art and craft in his practice. The motifs of his floral paintings were drawn from Diego Rivera's registry, transferring these into distinct oil on canvas paintings, which were then used for ceramic designs by his family's business.
Friedrich Kunath: The Things I Notice Now
Galería Travesía Cuatro, Calle de Valladolid 35, Roma Norte, 06700
27 April–31 July 2021
Beyond the bold colours of German artist Friedrich Kunath's canvases, a poetic melancholy lingers. With still life elements layered into abstract landscapes, his paintings revise 19th-century Romanticism, often dealing with his personal journey from Germany to Los Angeles.
'Los Angeles is an empty promise—I am fully aware of it—but I also love it', the artist has said. Universal experiences of love, despair, hope, and longing combine in his dream-like scenes. —[O]
