This year, Latin America’s most important art fair hosted more than 170 galleries from around the world.
The international fair will ran from February 6-10, 2019 at the Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City.
In addition to showcasing modern and contemporary art from around the world, the fair also showcased jewelry, furniture, art books and a vast array of other rare objects.
The art portion of the show was comprised of four sections: Main Section, New Proposals, Zona Maco Sur, and Modern Art.
Main Section
The Main Section of Zona Maco was comprised of over 70 galleries from around the world, hand picked by a panel of four curators, hailing from Mexico City to Berlin. The panel consists of Stefania Bortolami from Bortolami Gallery (New York), Ben Loveless from Galerie Nordenhale (Berlin), Patricia Ortiz Monasterio of Galería OMR (Mexico CIty) and Fernando Mesta of House of Gaga (Mexico City).
The galleries in this section truly were international, representing cities such as London, Barcelona, Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Bogota, and of course Mexico City (to name a few).
Below are images from the Main Section.
Marcos Castro (Mexico)
Above is a large piece by contemporary Mexican artist, Marcos Castro. Castro’s work has been showcased in a number of galleries, fairs and museums across Mexico. Although he works with a variety of mediums, the piece below is enamelled tile, executed this year (2019).
Castro currently lives and works out of Mexico City, and has recently opened a large studio space in the Esconde neighborhood to help over 20 emerging young artists develop their talents and receive the support they need to make a name for themselves in the contemporary art world.
Pascale Marthine Tayou (Cameroon)
Originally from Yaounde, Cameroon, Pascale has been represented by galleries internationally since the beginning of his career in the early 1990’s. The piece above is a fresco composed of chalk and other materials.
The massive, almost mural sized piece stood out from across the fair and almost looked like a different piece than it did from up close.
Morgan Blair (United States)
Morgan Blair grew up in Central Massachusetts and attended Rhode Island School of Design for Illustration. Many of the images in her paintings are inspired from images she finds on the internet (often Youtube), which she then recreates in abstraction on canvas.
As the images demonstrate above, her work’s are almost always very playful and rich in color and texture.
José Ramón Amondarian (Spain)
New Proposals
This section of the fair will be curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy from Mexicali. According to the Zona Maco website, this section aims to showcase work that breaks away from traditional norms, and “points towards [an] imaginative and experimental ways of living and thinking.”
Galería Karan Hubert
This gallery featured four contemporary artists: Ana Segovia (Mexico), Luis Hampshire (Mexico), Endy Hupperich (Alemania), and Keke Vilabelda (Spain). This booth brought a lot of attention, and gallery representatives were kept busy by the constant influx of people.
Vangelis Pliarides
Above are images of a figurative/surreal oil on canvas by contemporary Greek artist, Vangelis Pliarides, titled No More Hollywood for Me. Although Pliarides currently lives and works in Thessaloniki and London the artist was represented at the fair by Christine Park Gallery located in New York City.
The booth also showcased a series of recent watercolors by the artist, depicting contorted human figures interacting with another in various ways.
Zona Maco Sur
Currated by Kiki Mazzucchelli of Sáo Paulo, this section focused on the idea of performative art and it’s impact on the contemporary art world.
Modern Art
The Modern Art section was curated by 3 curators, all from Mexico City: Alejandra Yturbe of (GAM), Moriana Pérez Amor (also of GAM), and Enrique Guerrero (Galerí Enrique Guerrero). Comprised of various genres by artists from around the world, this section was focused on modern art from the 20th century.
Artists showcased in the section included modern masters such as Rufino Tamayo, Fernando de Szyszlo, and Ricardo Martinez de Hoyos.