The Best from Mexico City Art Week 2024

Mexico City Art Week 2024 comprises a busy line-up of exhibitions and events held by the city’s galleries and cultural institutions, bolstered by the presence of Latin America’s leading art fairs, including ZⓈONAMACO, Feria Material and Salón ACME — all of which take place over the span of just a few days and attract a global audience. Kicking off on Wednesday, this year Art Week runs from 7-11 February. The ambitious and multifaceted programme, which will unfold across the sprawling capital, is set to remind us all of Mexico City’s status as an art world nucleus — if we still needed reminding. With so much going on, Something Curated highlights the presentations and events you definitely won’t want to miss.

Salón ACME

Taking place at Proyectos Públicos, Salón ACME is essentially a platform created by artists for artists. Established through an annual open call, the event gives visibility to emerging creators from around the world. Born in 2013, Salón ACME now returns for its tenth edition during Mexico City Art Week, endeavouring to foster new audiences and consolidate a community of artists, curators and collectors. Alongside the main art programme, a series of talks and round table discussions will take place to promote dialogue around topics broached through the exhibits.

Fundación Casa Wabi at Colegio de San Ildefonso

Fundación Casa Wabi celebrates ten years of work on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Over the past decade, the organisation has pioneered a community development model that has had a profound impact on the region. The new exhibition commemorates the convergence of community, art, and nature, shaped through Casa Wabi’s residencies and outreach projects. Curated by Alberto Ríos de la Rosa and Juan Pino Poliakoff, the show takes inspiration from the essay, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking,” written by Martin Heidegger, in which the German philosopher explores building as an act of caring.

ZⓈONAMACO México Arte Contemporáneo

This year marks the twentieth edition of ZⓈONAMACO, established by founder Zélika García in 2003. Today, the largest art fair in Latin America, the latest iteration sees Cuban art historian and curator Direlia Lazo taking the helm, replacing former artistic director, Juan Canela. Running from 7-11 February 2024 at Centro Citibanamex, the upcoming fair comprises four sections, curated by Bernardo Mosqueira, Luiza Texeira de Freitas, Esteban King, and Direlia Lazo, respectively. Alongside showcasing prominent international galleries, the fair maintains a strong focus on Latin American perspectives. 

Beatriz González’s War and Peace: A Poetics of Gesture at MUAC

Since 1962, Colombian artist Beatriz González has used painting as a means of appropriating and interpreting pre-existing images from Western art history, popular culture, and photojournalism. Her best-known works are the assemblages she has made since the 1970s, combining her paintings with furniture and found objects. Held by the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), War and Peace: A Poetics of Gesture offers both an overview of González’s work and an original study of the artist’s approach to figure and gesture as vehicles for communication.

Gabriel Orozco at kurimanzutto

Seven years after transforming the gallery into an OXXO convenience store as part of the OROXXO project, Gabriel Orozco’s latest exhibition at kurimanzutto presents recent drawings, paintings and sculptures intricately connected to the places where he lives. The drawings in Diario de Plantas, made in notebooks small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, record the imprints and sketches of leaves to trace an open-ended cartography of organic growth. Orozco began this series in Tokyo during the pandemic, documenting the leaves that caught his attention or fell at his feet.

Feria Material

The tenth iteration of Feria Material will take place from 8-11 February 2024 at Expo Reforma in Mexico City’s lively Juarez neighbourhood. This edition of the art fair features two floors of galleries spotlighting artists from Mexico and beyond, as well as presenting an exciting programme of talks, screenings, performances, and other activities. Feria Material 2024 will also launch the second generation of Proyectos Material, an initiative that seeks to foster a new generation of independent contemporary art projects in Mexico, spotlighting six organisations from various regions of the country, spanning Oaxaca to Baja California.

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s With the South on My Back at Galerie Nordenhake

Guatemalan artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa’s works traverse dreamscapes and historical events, reimagining Latin American histories. His focus lies on Mesoamerica, colonisation processes, and the Guatemalan Civil War. With the South on My Back includes a new suite of paintings and sculptures, born from a research trip the artist made in 2023 to the archaeological site of Cacaxtla, Mexico. The works found at this site are one of the few records of the artistic exchange between the Maya and Central Mexican cultures — a fascinating example of cultural cross-pollination that is echoed in Ramírez-Figueroa’s work.



Feature image: Ali Salazar. Photo: @zonamaco