In Otobong Nkanga’s art, figures appear dismembered and limbless, indicating that they have been industrialized as tools of production and exploitation.
Author Archives: Devon Van Houten Maldonado
Devon Van Houten Maldonado lives and works in Mexico City, by way of Portland, Oregon and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He has contributed to Paste Magazine, OZY, Terremoto and Aesthetica Magazine. He was formerly staff reporter for The News Mexico.
Posted inArt
How Jef Geys’s Conceptual Enigmas Speak to Life
One gets the impression that Geys, as much as any artist ever managed to, achieved an integration of art and life.
Posted inNews
“We’re Fed Up”: Artists Break into Mexico City Museum, Demanding It Get with the Times
The group, called “Los Hemocionales,” protested El Eco’s programming, claiming it hasn’t lived up to its promise as an experimental institution.
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An Alternative Art Space in Mexico Challenges the Capital’s Dominance
With its first show, Puebla’s Decentered Gallery seeks to create unique local and international connections rather than responding to the biggest art markets.
Posted inNews
After Earthquake, Mexico City’s Art Community Takes Stock of the Damage
Some galleries suffered severe damage, others turned their spaces into relief centers, and the city’s biggest art fair came under fire for going ahead with its scheduled VIP opening the night of the quake.
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What We Lose and Gain in Recreating Antiquities
In his exhibition at at Galeria Mascota, Miguel Angel Salazar revives a cenotaph, showing that it’s both easier than ever to rewrite history, and more difficult to erase it.
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A Mexican Metalworker’s Colossal Jewelry for the Statue of Liberty
Ana Pellicer used traditional copper jewelry techniques from the Mexican state of Michoacan, then makes her pieces contemporary by playing with scale.
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Unmasking a Female Luchador Serial Killer and Studying “Pigmentocracy” in Mexico
Feminist academic Susana Vargas discusses the visualization of machismo, sexism, race, and class in Mexico.
Posted inNews
US Artist Trolls Trump with Billboard in Mexico City
After being denied by US ad companies, Mitch O’Connell took his billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a sinewy alien to Mexico City, where it now prominently hangs.
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The Continuing Saga of the Architect Made into a Diamond
The power games of Jill Magid’s project concerning the archives of Luis Barragán continue in an extensive exhibition that completes the circle without any conclusive resolution.
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A Blind Artist Looks Back at Growing Up in the ’90s
In 2014, Manuel Solano lost his eyesight from an HIV-related infection. His new works treat that experience as the generative event for his art.
Posted inArt
A Museum Built Among Ancient Ruins Impels an Inward Gaze
In other museums, fragments of the past are isolated into forgotten history, but at Kolumba, they are part of a dynamic whole.