“Mexico is so cheap!”

Mexico, although widely recognized as an artistic reference and a privileged access point for the rest of Latin America, has very deep social, economic, and political complexities. It is a territory of migrants trying to cross into the United States, and a country that must deal with internal problems such as class, gender, and racial inequalities, structural violence from the State and drug trafficking, and an unstable economy. In recent years, these difficulties have worsened with the impact of climate change, increasing temperatures and water shortages in cities whose service infrastructure is already overwhelmed.

After the pandemic of 2020, Mexico City experienced the arrival of a wave of foreigners, mainly from the United States, whose sociocultural characteristics significantly contrast with the conventional image associated with the word “migrant.” This specific group, known as expats, contributed to the increase in population density and caused urban transformations, including the eviction of entire buildings for remodeling and rent hikes, as well as the closure of local businesses replaced by contemporary food restaurants with English menus and precarious employment, despite the requirement of being bilingual. This trend of turning downtown neighborhoods into hype zones was accompanied by international galleries from the Global North interested in establishing themselves in this metropolis.

Gringos gentrificación, 2023. Photo courtesy Aldo Solano Rojas.

Without trying to reduce the discussion of the influence of northern countries, the recent arrival of expats belonging to an age group different from pre-pandemic mobility patterns and the opening of international galleries in the city perpetuate colonial practices that exoticize the local environment. In 2023, Artnews published an article entitled “Expats have flooded CDMX. How has their arrival changed the art scene in Mexico City?” The article pointed out that the city’s economic boom had driven the opening of new galleries and strengthened the market context at a global level, but from a critical perspective it pointed out the lack of interest of the galleries in connecting to the local scene.

Almost two years after the publication, two of the galleries highlighted in the article, Morán Morán and Commonwealth & Council, have closed, questioning the sustainability of this model. Deli Gallery from New York, which opened in Mexico City in 2023, and which did not last even two years, is another gallery on the list. Other art spaces from abroad that chose Mexico City as their headquarters and that remain active are Mariane Ibrahim, originally from Chicago, who does not represent Mexican artists, and König Gallerie, whose list of exhibited artists includes only three from Latin American countries.

The arrival of global economies that see Mexico as a fertile market for expansion repeats a historical pattern, that is, the imposition of external ideologies with little interest in integrating into the local scene. In a country marked by the wounds of colonial violence, these dynamics reinforce inequalities without addressing the urgent needs of the artistic environment.

Although the Mexican art world ecosystem is vibrant and diverse, the cultural infrastructure faces considerable challenges. Independent spaces, museums and galleries depend largely on limited resources, as every six-year term the budgets allocated to culture are drastically cut. This year, with President Claudia Sheinbaum, the reduction was 27.8% for a six-year period, in a first and deficient approach to this problem. Given this situation, public museums depend increasingly on private support. Amongst the galleries, only a few have managed to consolidate and maintain themselves internationally, such as the historic OMR and Kurimanzutto, both of which represent key artists for the hegemonic narrative of Mexican contemporary art.

The generation of curators to which I belong maintains a distant, and sometimes limited, relationship with local galleries and with the international ones that have arrived in the country, as well. When I consulted four colleagues about the emergence of these global spaces, they all agreed that, although Mexico has an active art scene, the presence of these galleries does not directly benefit local creators. Their location in neighborhoods with greater economic flow, such as Cuauhtémoc, Roma, Condesa and Escandón, disconnects them from the cultural and social needs of the city.

The rise of the Mexican art scene seems like a mirage, with these galleries prioritizing market strategy and trending topics in global art. Every February, collectors, gallery owners and museum professionals come to Mexico, attracted by international events. According to curator and writer Fabiola Iza, this facade shows that Mexico is not yet a consolidated destination for the art market. Although the circuit is solid and visible at a global level, the closure of foreign galleries reflects, in part, their obvious inability to connect with the complex local network.

Pamela Desjardins, a curator from Tucumán who has been living in Mexico since 2017, points out that the arrival of these galleries is a gentrifying phenomenon derived from the pandemic that, I would say, can be parodied through the widespread phrase used by tourists: “Mexico is so cheap.” For her, although Mexico City stands out as a strong artistic hub in Latin America and internationally, the distance that these galleries maintain from the local scene is a symptom of a privileged population that avoids getting involved with the social context. In this sense, what are these spaces looking for when they open galleries in the city?

“They don’t even make the effort to speak Spanish, taking for granted that their public belongs to a specific sector,” says Fernanda Dichi, curator and researcher. This strategy reflects a purely economic interest aimed at building bridges to the United States and Europe. “There is a lack of interest in local artists. In addition, the arrival of these galleries coincides with the promotion of a rancid nationalism promoted by the 4T government,” she believes. Dichi adds that these dynamics impact curatorial practice by generating exclusive and exoticizing readings that displace work that does not fit into the global narrative.

On the other hand, Adriana Flores, an independent curator, observes that these dynamics influence local artistic production in a negative way. She believes that more and more young artists orient their work towards global trends, attracted by the possibility of success, though without any guarantees. Flores also highlights how independent and self-managed spaces are tempted to align themselves with a market logic that homogenizes discourses and dilutes the tensions that originally defined their projects.

To close, I would like to include the voice of two gallery owners on the current scene who promote the work of young and mid-career artists. Mauricio Galguera and María García Sainz, founders of Pequod Co., offer a critical perspective that contrasts with ours as curators. For them, the arrival of new spaces allows for conversations that might not otherwise arise, a conclusion based on their experience collaborating with galleries such as Commonwealth & Council. However, they consider that the main mistake of more established galleries is trying to use Mexico as a platform, instead of building links with artists on the local scene. “The market in Mexico is, in reality, small and localized, so opening a gallery implies creating connections with artists, the ones who contribute to the scene in an intellectual, poetic and historical way.”

In terms of financing a gallery, I agree in part that in order to give a solid foundation to a project it is necessary to create relationships beyond the market. However, I believe that the growing and unsustainable economic transformation for the generation of millennial cultural workers, evidenced by the quality of life of expats, reveals a Mexico City with overwhelming inequalities. Art, with a narrative of internationalization, operates as an elitist practice guided by capital and global trends. The search for international visibility is disconnected from the pressing social, political and cultural realities of the country. The rigidity of global capital and its scant interest in understanding and respecting the textures of the local fabric is revealed by an ideological conservatism in which these galleries are just another symptom of this critical condition.

The centralization of art in Mexico City silences the artistic practices of a vast country with great cultural diversity. Although these galleries are based in Mexico, by operating within a limited perspective, they reiterate an insurmountable border that nullifies the multiplicity of voices and proposals that exist beyond the capital and the global market.

[Featured Image: Jennis Quesadillas, 2023. Photo courtesy Aldo Solano Rojas]