This weekend, the vibrant Gallery Weekend in Mexico City is awakening the Art Scene! Navigating the storm of events, the shows at Galería Hilario Galguera catch our attention.
The first weekend of November 2021 sees an incredible choice of events in Mexico City. From the 4th to the 7th, events and exhibitions are shining a special light on important artists, exciting perspectives and energetic galleries.
Among the intriguing network of spaces, Galería Hilario Galguera (address: Francisco Pimentel 3, San Rafael I CDMX) is particularly active. The gallery proposes a curated selection of unmissable works, this time in several different exhibitions which opened on Friday the 5th of November.
One exhibition is ‘Jardín, cocina, basura, cuerpo’, displaying works by London-based Maisie Cousins. It showcases images takes during the artists’ time spent in Mexico and works produced in the last four years. She challenges the boundaries of seduction and repulsion, integrating different organic and dynamic cycles in her glossy and hyper-saturated cropped photographs.
Another exhibition - produced in collaboration with Galería Millan - is ‘Criaturas Ornamentales’ which presents paintings and monotypes created from 2015 by Brazilian artist Rodrigo Andrade. Rodrigo Andrade, born in São Paulo in 1962, confronts the materiality of paint and the history of this medium through his works.
The third exhibition, ‘Mujeres artistas en Colonia San Rafael’, shows works by the four very different artists of the group ‘El cuarto de Máquinas’. Among them Artist Lotte Anderson, born in 1989, explore social interactions, group dynamics, trauma, nostalgia, euphoria and release though various media. Born in 1995, Tori Pounds’ artistic practice sheds light on Ecology and the damaging effects of anxiety. Elvira Smeke, born in 1978, uses everyday materials, adopting a critical feminist perspective lens to address environmental themes. Born in 2000, through a dark palette Cosima von Moreau develops works around ideas of intimacy and the overlapping layers of life and experiences.
Talking about the exhibition, Hilario Galguera, founder of Galería Hilario Galguera, kindly took the time to explain something more about the concept behind the exhibitions…
Zoë Rivas Zanello (Writer, Kooness): “How did you develop the idea of creating these exhibitions for Gallery Weekend?”
Hilario Galguera: “In 2017 I had been to the studio of the artist David Bailey in London who lent me his pass for Photo London. I attended and came across the photo Oaxacan ants by artist Maisie Cousins, in the booth of TJ Boulting. I was immediately drawn to the photograph. I thought its presence was captivating, and then later when talking with Maisie only then discovered the origin of the photo. The discussion to show Maisie’s work at the gallery began then and with Maisie being one of the youngest artists of the gallery, born in 1992, I considered Gallery Weekend the right time to show her work.
The second exhibition, showing Rodrigo Andrade in collaboration with galeria Millan in Sao Paolo, came as a result of more recent conversations. Since the pandemic, we have found collaborations very wise, as they not only focus the support of two or more galleries on the career of the artist, strengthening the outcome in terms of press, visibility, and exposure, but they also enable the ability to show artworks in an entirely new city and to an entirely new audience. Our first collaboration was was Winter Street Gallery, based in Martha's Vinyard, the second with Heart Ego Gallery based in Monterrey, and now the third with the Brazilian gallery Galeria Millan.
Finally, the third exhibition is a project I initiated when I had a gallery in Germany. The project El Cuarto de Máquinas translated to The Machine Room, was to provide artists with a place to develop ideas and experiment in a less formal approach than a gallery. The same ideas has also been successful with the Lab, run by my close friend Judy Lybka from Eigen + Art and we are currently relaunching the project not only in Mexico, but in off site locations globally. For this exhibition we welcome four female artists with studios near to the gallery.”
Zoë Rivas Zanello (Writer, Kooness): “Can you tell us about the exhibitions at the gallery?”
Hilario Galguera: “I will present the three exhibitions separately, but the feeling in the gallery is that each is connected in some way.
The exhibition by Maisie Cousins titled Jardín, cocina, basura, cuerpo, explores the idea of nature and decay, with often the latter being an even more elegant and more beautiful form of nature. The ability to capture the essence of this decay with a visceral rawness is what Maisie achieves in her work. The title of the exhibition reflects very simply how I curated the show, starting with the garden room, continuing through to the kitchen and trash, and ending with the body. The idea to hang the photographs at different heights dependant on the ages of children was a new idea, and one that I think is innovative in gallery and museum curation.
Criaturas Ornamentales, the solo exhibition by Rodrigo Andrade shows paintings constructed by nature, arabesques, playing cards, and columns of Oscar Niemeyer's buildings, which are also an ornamental tradition, related to arts & crafts. In architecture, Niemeyer brings to modernism an idea of sensuality and beauty of form that is somewhat independent of function. This is something that is reflected in Rodrigo's paintings. The exhibition was installed to correspond to the nature of the downstairs gallery spaces and also to my office. We were able to introduce some bronze pieces alongside the Daniel Buren installation, linking and intertwining the exhibition with a masterpiece.
The Cuarto de máquinas exhibition, was left open to the artists. I am very happy to support a new generation of artists with a space to present their work.”
As well as these three incredible and well thought out exhibitions, the Terrace of Galería Hilario Galguera currently hosts works by artist Yupica. He explores spirituality through site-specific multimedia installations, paintings, sculptures, moving images and photographs from his rural-urban perspective.
Overall, Galería Hilario Galguera provides us with an unquestionably distinctive contribution to the lively Gallery Weekend 2021.
