Traveling to Mexico City for ZONAMACO this week? If so, you’ll want to make time to visit these exhibitions throughout the city, on view at spaces like Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Museo Jumex, and kurimanzutto
James Turrell
Installation view
Photo by Florian Holzerr
Courtesy of the artist and Museo Jumex.
James Turrell: Passages of Light
Museo Jumex
Now—March 29, 2020
“Passages of Light” is a survey of works by James Turrell, featuring new additions to his most important series. Featuring light as the central medium, the exhibition spans two floors of the Museo Jumex, presenting a carefully manipulated space in which fields of color become a physical presence. Turrell approaches his use of light with a scientific understanding, which enables him to transcend beyond the indoor space, making the viewer feel as though the skies and heavenly bodies are just within reach. The show also features a selection of prints, photographs, models, holograms, and other works from Turrell’s widespread practice.
Stephen Prina: English for Foreigners
Museo Tamaya
February 7—May 24
Stephen Prina’s “English for Foreigners” follows the artist’s relationship with the paternal figure, centered around Frederick Houghton’s Second Book in English for Foreigners in Evening Schools, which was given to the artist by his father. In the show, Prina has arranged a collection of objects and elements in order to narrate the story of father and son, interspersed with fascism, migration, and labor. Through items like a copy of the textbook annotated by his father, a wood-and-fabric sculpture, and a reproduction of a faded 1973 photograph, viewers gain perspective on topics that remain relevant in contemporary culture and politics, like territory and displacement, identity, citizenship, language, and behavior.
Cecilia Vicuña
Gillete Buda—Buddha Gillete
ca. 1970-1971
Photo by Claudio Bertoni
Courtesy of the artist and Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo.
Cecilia Vicuña: Seehearing the Enlightened Failure
Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo
February 8—August 2
Cecilia Vicuña’s exhibition “Seehearing the Enlightened Failure” is a compilation of more than 100 works by the artist, poet, and activist, including a number of pieces displayed for the first time. Curated by Miguel A. López, the presentation follows Vicuña’s practice, which often explores a wide range of topics like colonial legacies, collective joy, indigenous thinking, eroticism, and environmental devastation. Vicuña is known for voicing her radical outlook on the relationship between art and politics. Her oeuvre includes a wide range of works comprised of words, images, and environments, which she creates from a combination of mediums and techniques not limited to drawing, video, performance, and collage.
Pia Camil
Sin Titulo
2019
Courtesy of the artist and Galería OMR
Pia Camil: Ríe ahora, llora después
Galeria OMR
February 4—April 4
For Pia Camil’s “Ríe ahora, llora después,” the artist presents a selection of drawings entitled in a show that translates to “Laugh Now, Cry Later.” Applying gestural marks with liquid watercolor, acrylic ink, and oil stick onto paper, the finished product is a series of abstracted portraits in vivid colors, like a work entitled Su cuerpo dejarán depicting a colorful face with an eerie smile, or Sin Titulo—a female form emerging from a series of marks and splatters.
Yoshua Okón
Octopus
2011
Courtesy of the artist and Proyectos Monclova
Yoshua Okón: Oraculo
Proyectos Monclova
Now—March 7
Over the last 30 years, Yoshua Okón’s artistic practice has evolved out of a fascination with art’s ability to act as a bomb. “Oraculo” features works like the 2015 video Oracle, a narrative on the nature of consumerism entitled Fridge-Freezer, and his most recent work, Banana Republic (título provisional), in which the artist sets fire to a replica of a clothing store. Through devices like critique and satire, Okón employs his practice with the job of opening his viewers’ eyes to the complex domination machine in which we each take part.
Manuel Rocha Iturbide: ISOMORPHIC TAXONOMIES
Le Laboratoire
February 4—April 4
The exhibition “ISOMORPHIC TAXONOMIES” features Manuel Rocha Iturbide’s personal collection of objects, gathered over the past few years. The artist investigates his own need to accumulate these objects, whether motivated by accumulation, aesthetics, or taste. Viewers will get a look at a personal archive of sorts, that evokes notions of nostalgia, repetition, memory, and record. The collection is grouped together into an intentional composition based on relationships, materials, and other specific regularities.
Siembra (Sowing)
Kurimanzutto
2020
This year, kurimanzutto introduces a new kind of exhibition programming. For all of 2020, just one show will be presented across seven separate spaces within the gallery, each feature a solo show by an artist. This approach aims to disrupt the demand of a typical gallery calendar. Launching for ZⓈONAMACO will be solo presentations from Eduardo Abaroa, Wendy Cabrera, Minerva Cuevas, Galen Jackson and Daniela Rossell, Dr. Lakra, Gabriel Orozco, and Haegue Yang.
