(…) In the Latin American sphere, Zona MACO, Mexico, DF, has been getting stronger and has become one of the most important ones in the region. This 14th edition, that took place from February 8th to 10th at the Centro Banamex, was distinguished for the number of participating galleries, some of them of a high level norm. This is one of the criteria that grants significance to this kind of events; the prestige of the participating galleries ensures the quality of the works that are exhibited and at the same time magnetizes the attention of collectors, curators and public in general. The Mexican fair has been able to develop a program that not only draws gallerists, collectors and curators from different parts of the world but it encourages national collecting as well and becomes a market platform which is the ultimate goal of art fairs.
(…) For the last few years, several Cuban artists have been present in ZONA MACO, whether through Cuban galleries or foreign ones. In this section five galleries exhibited works by Cuban artists. Marlborough (Chelsea, New York) exhibited a landscape by Tomás Sánchez, La Caja Negra (Madrid) presented an engraving by Alexandre Arrechea and Sean Kelly (New York) a drawing by Los Carpinteros.
At the same time, Galeria Continua (San Gimignano/Beijing/Les Moulins/Havana) exhibited a painting by José Eduardo Yaque, a piece by Carlos Garaicoa from the series El dibujo, la escritura, la abstracción (la abstracción III, verde)—Drawing, writing, abstraction (abstraction III, green)—and an installation by Reinier Leyva Novo, La doctrina perfecta (de la serie El peso de la ideología)—The perfect doctrine (from the series The weight of ideology). On a straight line with Novo’s piece, as in a dialogue between the two stood one of the bicycle installations by Ai Weiwei (China) featuring the gallery stand in one of its lateral sides. The gallery Mai36 (Switzerland) displayed an oil on canvas by Raúl Cordero, Untitled (Words are wind…) and an abstract painting by Flavio Garciandía. These two artists have lived in Mexico for several years.
Another Cuban, Ariel Orozco, who also lives in the host country, was chosen to represent Galeria Licenciado (Mexico), this time in the Section ZONA MACO SUR.
Cuban presence was noticed in the Section New Proposals with the participation of the Galería Servando (Havana), which attended the fair for the fourth time (2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017). In this occasion the selection parameter was the age of artists (those born after 1980) and in this way the fair maintained a space for emerging art. (…) For this edition Galería Servando proposed a dialogue between Osvaldo González and Leandro Feal, two emerging Cuban artists whose meeting point pretended to explore the subject of space related to the architectonical sense, one approaching it from painting and installation and the other one from photography.
(…) In addition, this year the New Proposals section for the first time called on SAMPLE, a new exhibition area that permitted the approved galleries to propose new artists beyond the booth space. (…) In this case, Galería Servando was included with a painting by Alejandro Campins and eight video-animations by Orestes Hernández which rotated in a group loop with the proposals of other galleries.
(…) Lastly within the group of the sixteen galleries that composed the Modern Art Section, Durban Segnini Gallery (Florida) exhibited sculptures by Agustín Cárdenas together with works of other Latin American artists like Carlos Cruz-Diez, Antonio Seguí, Germán Botero and Carlos Rojas, among others. In this section, one of the most important of the fair, and in which Latin American works prevailed, the presence of Cuban artists was missed the most. (…)
