The best from all over, together in DF

Review of MACO 2007: The Mexico City International Art Fair
By Margaret Failoni, May 11, 2007


After last year’s debacle, I was pleasantly surprised with MACO 2007, the Mexico City International Art Fair. Approximately 84 galleries participated this year—from Mexico and the United States as well as Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Venezuela, Austria, Switzerland, Uruguay, Brazil, Ireland, Argentina and Denmark. The location was moved to a very claustrophobic parking lot located beneath a new, unfinished luxury residential complex in the Palmas/Lomas district. There was no air-conditioning, and as always, the event was very, very crowded. The stands were not well-appointed, the exit signs were few and badly located. All of the above is excused when you walk through and realize that the art is really good. There was a buzz in the air. Critics and collectors were slowly wading their way through the crowds with looks of admiration on their faces.

Lots of good photography was being exhibited along with some video, a few small installations, some paintings and works on paper.

On the first floor, without smacking of favoritism, among the most interesting stands was our own Kunsthaus, which listed its address as Miami. They do have a space there, as if a San Miguel label would be demeaning. The digital impressions by Daniela Edburg were literally flying off the wall. By the second day, they were all sold, and gallery personnel were taking orders for them. There were a few small, humorous oils by Rocio Maldonado, but the eye stopper was Ana Quiroz’s Anillo de Compromiso (engagement ring), entirely made with tiny glass shards with a small scull in place of the traditional diamond. Also on exhibit were a few of her “Life Saver” series which were featured a few months ago in the international art magazine, Nexus. Other artists’ works were also exhibited in this stand, including interesting digital impression prints of dimensional sculpture surfaces by Tania Candiani, Dulce Pinzón’s color impressions and beautifully executed oils by Rafael Rodriguez.

The Charro Negro Gallery from Zopopan, Jalisco, had few but interesting works. They showed a very large acrylic on canvas by Tomàs Lopes Rocha, which was an attention grabber, along with paintings by Edgar Cobiàn.

The Faría Fabregas Gallery from Caracas, Venezuela, was one of the few spaces to adhere to “less is more,” but then the stunning stabile entitled UNstabile-Mobile by Alessandro Balteo Yasbeck, a clear homage to Calder, held its own for the entire space.

Proyectos Monclave from Mexico City had a larger stand but chose to exhibit a series of very small works by different artists, all interesting and well-executed, particularly those by Marco Roundtree, Alejandro García and Marcos Castro.

The Habres & Partner Gallery from Vienna exhibited interesting photography and videos, especially those by Mathias Ressler and Laura Samaraweerova.

The most interesting pieces in the Steve Turner Gallery from Beverly Hills was a series of medium-size charcoal drawings, minimally abstract and reminiscent of Richard Serra.

Emma Molino from Monterrey had a large stand and displayed rather good abstract works by several artists. Of note were two very colorful and heavily materic works by Bosco Sodi and two large black marble slabs with finely etched images similar to snowflakes, deftly produced by Xavery Wolsky. It was somewhat of a surprise as this artist first made it big on the Mexico City art scene with beautifully sculpted terra cotta armor, partial figures, etc.

The Yvonne Lambert Gallery of Paris, Milan and New York is a heavy hitter and is seen at all the major fairs such as Basle and ARCO. Therefore, I take it as a sign (which I already suspected) that the MACO has moved up quite a few grades. The gallery came with an interesting selection of small works by Andres Serrano and Mircea Cantor.

The Lucas Feichtner Gallery from Vienna exhibited beautiful realism in the form of Martin Schnur’s oils on canvas so reminiscent of Lucian Freud’s brand of intimate realism.

The Moti Hasson Gallery from New York dedicated its space to beautiful abstract works by Paul Pagk and Jiha Moon.

But the super stars were all located on the lower level. Once you got over the claustrophobic two story descent, you were immediately engulfed in some very interesting contemporary art. It would be impossible to name them all, but one that caught my attention was from the Zwirner Gallery from New York, Mariel Dzamas’ puppet boxes, large Pinocchio-faced puppets with a political message.

Connor Contemporary Art of Washington, DC featured large painted portraits of beautiful women wearing apparel from which rabbits seemed to be escaping and the very beautiful and provocative Taste of Honey nude. It was unusual to see them in a fair dedicated to the different and new forms of art so prevalent today, but quite welcome, like the sorbet between courses.

The Caja Negra Gallery from Madrid, as always, put on a sensational stand. Dedicated to editions, this publisher/gallery does not do ordinary prints. Caja Negra editions generally run no more than four or five, and the gallery specializes in pushing the bar for these new techniques. The Jan Hendrix bas-reliefs are in editions of four and the Richard Serra aquatint/etching, in editions of six, are quite unique pieces in the low number of the editions and the uniqueness of the techniques used to create them.

The Voges & Partner Galerie from Frankfurt dedicated most of its space to Bethsabeè Romero. Her finely etched tire hanging from a transparent string slowly moved with the air; its gold and silver covered relief glistening in the light. Also on display were a small group of her mechanical cars, each with little picnic or patio scenes on the rooftops. Her work was the highlight of this stand.

The Quetzali Gallery from Oaxaca had its usual excellent selection of artists’ works—small, beautiful works by Francisco Toledo and Jesus Lugo to name a few.

Fernando Pradilla from Madrid offered exceptional mixed media photo works by Ambra Polidoro, Marta Maria Perez Bravo and German Gomez.

GAM-Galeria de Arte Mexicana from Mexico City had its usual roster of Mexican classics along with works by the newer generation—Pedro Coronel, Gunther Gertzs and David Alfaro Siqueiros were exhibited alongside sculpture by Marie Jose Marin, Mary Stuart and Jan Hendrix.

The MYTO Gallery in Mexico City showed its usual dedication to the very newest tendencies with paintings and sculpture by Angel Ricardo Ricardo Ruiz—of particular fun was his large, round, buttoned, pale blue-green seat with a swimming pool stair-rail in place of an arm rest—and wonderful photos by Ariel Orozco and Yunior Mariño. The jury is still out on the photo-documented tattoo series. The KBK Gallery of Mexico City had a large stand with a wonderful installation—red saws climbing up a turquoise wall, turquoise saws climbing back down a red wall. It maybe difficult to explain, but the result was crowd-pleasing.

The Viennese-based Ernest Hilger Galerie presented a stand with outstanding large-format photography C-prints and digital impressions by Tim White-Sobiesky and Anastasia Khoroshilova.

Nina Menocal in Mexico City lived up to her reputation for cutting edge art with an installation of digitally manipulated photos by Raymundo Sesma and a delightful, but altogether politically incorrect, work by Carlos Aguirre.

The Ramis Barquet Gallery of Monterrey and New York also showed a Bethsabeè Romero tire work as well as interesting creations by Victor Rodriguez.

The Enrique Guerrero gallery had a large photo triptych beautifully rendered by Azitea 2 and the Galeria Luis Adelantado of Madrid showed great photography by Eduardo Sournouille.

An old colleague and friend Grita Insam of Vienna exhibited a linear series of small-format, pigment prints hung in a small closet-like space, heightening the effect of the images. The works were created by Katherina Shglitz. Also interesting was a large, mirror-foil image by Gerald Tagwerker and large beautiful photo works by Mateo Maté and Sabine Bittes/Helmut Weber. This was a far cry from the constipated look of last year’s disappointing stand. 

The Mexico City OMR Gallery was present with a less than exciting installation by Erick Beltran, but the work by Iñaki Bonillas was truly inspirational.

The Italians came to the fair this year and braved the competition with some interesting work. The AMT Gallery from Como showed interesting paintings by Ray Smith and photography by Sergio Limonta.

Bonelli Arte Contemporanea from Mantua came with photo art by Nicola Vinci and a beautiful landscape painting by Fulvio DiPiazza.

Perugi Artecontemporanea Gallery from Padova took a large stand to show some less than exciting cartoonish-type works by The Royal Art Lodge, mixed media on wood with story board painted on.


But the Massimo DiCarlo Gallery from Milan beat them all. In a very large open corner stand they papered the walls with wide and colorful vertical stripes. Then hung a long horizontal line of 15x15 inch paintings by an impressive list of 18 internationally known artists, inlcluding Yan Pei Ming, John Armleder, Sol LeWitt, Ettore Spalletti, Massimo Bartolini and Alighiero Boetti to name a few.

It took me two days to really work the fair. Not many international art magazines were represented, but this year, along with Nexus International, came Flash Art International magazines and their valuable Flash Art Diary.

All in all, it was a very enlightening and worthwhile experience. The Mexico City Art Fair really did their homework this year. On Wednesday, the day before the fair opened, most galleries participated in an art walk of the new opening shows. The Spanish Cultural Institute opened an exhibition that night with a show of superb photography by the Spanish photographer Mercedes Muñoz and an extraordinary exhibition of Madrid’s Caja Negra Editions by Pedro Cabreta, Pedro Calapez, Josè Pedro Croft, Felix Curto, Roland Fisher, Juan Galdeana, Jan Hendrix, Jonathan Hernandez, Damian Hirst, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Bruce Nauman, Lillian Porter, George Rousse, Richard Serra and Ben Vautier. The opening was preceded by a series of lectures by museum curators, directors, and critics on the importance of creating, promoting and collecting editions.

That same evening, the gallery walks started at the Plaza Rio de Janeiro. A nude, young man posed as David in the center of the square and the fountain was filled with huge mounds of white foam. Galleries in the area, including the OMR and Terreno Baldio Arte, held open houses complete with cocktails. The after gallery parties were followed by a huge get-together of artists, critics, collectors and dealers at the artist hangout Covadunga in Colonia Condesa. Everyone was there—Spanish, English and French were bandied across the tables like ping pong balls, and yet in all the confusion, drinks appeared out of nowhere.

Every evening there were art-related venues and parties, some by invitation only. However, if you knew an artist or a dealer at the fair, it was easy to get what turned out to be the ubiquitous VIP card which gave entry to all the events. The farewell closing of the fair party was held at the stylish Hotel Habita in Polanco, which also hosted the Chilango Artists exhibition. An exhausting, fun-filled time was had by all. For artists and art lovers alike, I strongly recommend the 2008 Art Fair in Mexico City.


Margaret Failoni is an independent curator and art historian who has lived in San Miguel for 13 years. She curates exhibitions of contemporary art for museums, public spaces and some galleries in Mexico after a full-time career in Rome, Italy.