| | |  Vallarta Living | Art Talk | April 2009 
Galleries Flock to Zona Maco Art Fair
 Lauren Villagran - The News
go to original
Gallery owners, curators and collectors from Mexico City and abroad will be wheeling and dealing this week with the opening of Mexico's largest annual contemporary art fair.
Zona Maco - short for México Arte Contemporáneo - unites 90 galleries from around the world, representing the work of 800 established and emerging artists, under one roof.
The four-day event is celebrating its seventh year, although it has undergone several changes in name and venue. This year Zona Maco finds a home in a 10,000-square-foot space inside Mexico City's Centro Banamex from April 22 through April 26.
"It's a platform for sales and exchange among galleries, artists, collectors and museums," said Zelika García Ortiz, Zona Maco director. "This is a very important cultural event for Mexico."
Zona Maco - which is open to the public but designed to facilitate the connection of gallery owners with collectors who would buy their artists' work - opens this year amid an air of uncertainty. No one can be sure how deep the financial crisis has dented collectors' wallets in Mexico, or what they'll be willing to spend this year.
What's clear is that the crisis won't go unnoticed, certainly by the artists themselves.
"It's a very interesting moment [for artists]," said Patricia Ortiz Monasterio, owner of OMR Gallery in Mexico City. "The crisis is reflected in their art - in literal, sentimental and corporal terms. It seems to me that the very best works emerge during moments of crisis."
The event this year also includes a new section: Zona Sur, a collection of young galleries representing 15 lesser-known artists from Latin America.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The recession has pounded the contemporary art world, just as it has other industries.
The famed New York auction house Sotheby's said in its 2008 annual report that sales from contemporary auctions - which had risen to the highest ever during the first three quarters of the year - tumbled 62 percent in the fourth quarter as the financial crisis gained momentum.
Mexico City's contemporary art dealers have suffered a similar tumble.
"Since then there has been much more caution on the part of collectors," said Ortiz Mo-nasterio. "They don't feel pressured. The market is much slower, but it's not completely dead."
Indeed, several contemporary art gallery owners who plan to exhibit at Zona Maco expressed optimism that savvy collectors will see a buying opportunity.
"This year's sales haven't been the best, but the interesting thing is just to be there," said Alfredo Ginocchio, who owns a Mexico City gallery that bears his name. "We have great expectations to be there, to move and promote and - we hope - to sell."
Camilo Alvarez, owner of Samson Projects gallery in Boston, is coming to Zona Maco for the fourth year. Even if this year's fair doesn't generate the highest sales ever, Alvarez said he would be content to make his costs back and meet new Mexico City collectors.
"Mexico City is an amazing city for artists and contemporary art in general," he said. "The collectors are highly curious and sophisticated. They know what they are looking at."
LATIN AMERICAN FLAVOR
Although the art fair features galleries from around the world, and a committee of gallery owners from six countries selected this year's participants, Zona Maco strikes a distinctly Latin American tone - more so this year with the introduction of Zona Maco Sur.
Galleries from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Spain and the United States will be represented at this exhibition within an exhibition.
"Every art fair must have its own personality," Ortiz Mo-nasterio said. "Having a strong representation of Latin American art doesn't mean we're only about Latin American art, but, yes, there is an emphasis. That is why people want to come: because they find something distinctive."
OMR Gallery will exhibit the work of five artists: Gabriel de la Mora, Iñaki Bonillas, Aldo Chaparro, Jorge Méndez Blake and Cándida Höfer.
Ginocchio Gallery will display the work of two artists, Hugo Lugo and Claire Becker.
For Allison Ayers, co-owner and director of Houston-based Sicardi Gallery, Zona Maco is a chance to show some of the younger artists she represents, as well as the cutting-edge work of more established artists.
"We work with Latin American masters and this gives us a venue to show more conceptual work," she said.
Ayers will also show work by Gabriel de la Mora, along with works by León Ferrari, Regina Silveira and Oscar Muñoz, whose art is currently being exhibited at Mexico City's Museo Tamayo.
"I believe art fairs can help create a market by piquing people's interest," Ginocchio said.
"There is always a small group of collectors. But by opening up the market, more people come to explore. It creates curiosity, and art becomes more popular."
The fair will take place in Hall D of the Centro Banamex, located at Av. del Conscripto 311, Col. Lomas de Sotelo,
Tel.: 5268-2000.
General admission hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday; 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are 100 pesos daily, and 50 pesos for teachers and students. Admission is free for children under 12. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us