A first look at Soho House Mexico City’s art collection

Mexico City has long been dubbed a global art destination. A bourgeoning community of unique artists and a network of galleries are shaping the future of the city and placing it on the global art map. And with Mexico City Art Week in full swing, hundreds of international galleries are exhibiting at ZONA MACO, Feria Material and Salón ACME. To mark the moment, we picked five artists showing at the fairs, who are part of the upcoming art collection at Soho House Mexico City opening this year.  

Standing as the first Soho House in Latin America, it is located between Juárez and Roma Norte. The design of the building reflects the historic French influences and baroque heritage, and the art collection comprises 100 artworks selected from artists born, based or trained in Mexico. Here’s a look at their work. 

Abraham Cruzvillegas, ‘Otras Rutas 2’
Showing at ZONA MACO with Kurimanzutto gallery

Born in Mexico City, Abraham Cruzvillegas works with sculpture, installation and drawing, and is best known for his work with found objects. His artistic process is deeply influenced by his surroundings; linked by the platform autoconstrucción: a concept that draws from the ingenious, precarious and collaborative building tactics implemented by the people living in Colonia Ajusco, his childhood neighbourhood in Mexico City. The structures and objects he creates evoke improvisation, instability and constant learning about materials, landscape, people, and himself.

His series, Otras Rutas (Other Routes) 2022, is part of ongoing drawing research, related to mapping trajectories on wall reliefs and subjective psychogeographic landscapes, exploring alternative paths from one point to the other. 

Jose Dávila, ‘The Fact Of Constantly Returning To The Same Point Or Situation’
Showing at ZONA MACO with OMR gallery

Jose Dávila is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist working with sculpture, painting, drawing and prints. An architect by training, he often explores the tradition of modernism and the failure of its utopian architectural principals, the notions of balance and equilibrium manifested through sculptural creation, as well as the politics of representation in visual arts. His bold use of shape and colour often refers back to his interest in design and architecture, while giving them a radically new context. 

Julieta Gil, ‘Nuestra Victoria VI’
Showing at Feria Material with Campeche gallery

Julieta Gil is a Mexican artist currently based in Oregon, whose work explores relationships between spatial and material memory through diverse forms of media. Her recent interest is focused on documenting monuments as sites where imposed narratives are confronted with collective forms of telling and remembering. In her practice, she uses routine walks, observations and a record-keeping system  that consists of a photogrammetric scanning procedure, traditionally used to create 3D models. 

As described by the artist, Nuestra Victoria (Our Victory) is a series of works about a prominent Mexico City monument. During the summer of 2019, hours after serving as the site of protests focused on systemic violence against women, the monument was boarded up. The government soon began working on its restoration, erasing the voices of protest that it carried. The work consists of a 3D digital archive that intends to preserve the data of the monument after its occupation by civil society.

Renata Petersen, ‘Sin Titulo’
Showing at Feria Material with Pequod Co.

Based in Guadalajara, Renata Petersen works with sculpture, blown glass and ceramics to explore the social and cultural themes often perceived as something on the fringes: sexuality and pornography, junk TV, sects and ‘bad taste’. She has a particular interest in interweaving referential winks to works by artists such as Mike Kelley, Sarah Lucas, Raymond Pettibon and Kim Gordon, but in her own distinct way linked to traditional Guadalajara artisan techniques. 

Lake Verea, ‘Cuartos Obscuros, Barragán En Penumbra 15’
Showing at Feria Material with Proyecto Paralelo

Composed of Mexico City natives Francisca Rivero-Lake Cortina and Carla Verea Hernández, the duo was established in 2005. Their artistic practice focuses on experimentation around the expanded idea of the image and photography to other media such as installation, textile, performance and video. Memory, portraiture, modern architecture and the exploration of archives of 20th century artists are their main research topics.

‘“Darkrooms, Barragán In Penumbra” is a look at the inside of the intimate space designed by Luis Barragán for himself where he lived from 1948 until his death in 1988,’ says Cortina and Hernández, who worked in collaboration with the Barragan Foundation and Casa-Taller de Luis Barrágan. ‘We portray the house under moonlight to understand “that other space” when night falls. The thin light coming through the windows lets us see details that are unimportant at daylight, looking to understanding the intimacy that only the architect experiences.’