Discover Meridiano, an Art Gallery Designed as a Sacred Space on Mexico’s Oaxacan Coast

Approached from a secluded pathway off a sandy road, the gallery’s footprint features an open square that leads to a covered rectangular room whose only light source is an open skylight. The enclosure’s opening frames a portion of the sky, changing in formation and illumination from moment to moment as it interacts with the artworks on display. Its large wooden doors are made from parota, a native hardwood tree that connects the structure with the local environment.

“The architecture is based on sacred geometry out of respect for Mexican traditions with the aim to create a space for art that looks like it’s always existed in this unique place,” said Axel Vervoordt. “When they asked us—Tatsuro Miki and myself—to create a gallery next to Casa Wabi, next to this beautiful place, so serene, created by Tadao Ando, it was really a big challenge. We said we have to go back to the origin of Mexico and make a building that is totally timeless.”

Situated in a coastal ecosystem west of Puerto Escondido and near Casa Wabi, Mexican artist Bosco Sodi’s acclaimed studio, artist residency, exhibition space, and sculpture garden, Meridiano is centered in a strip of contemporary architectural wonders. While Casa Wabi boasts a main campus conceived by Tadao Ando and other buildings designed by Álvaro Siza, Kengo Kuma, and Alberto Kalach, a nearby concrete house by architect Carlos Matos serves as a rental property and Kalach’s pyramidal, solar-powered Hotel Terrestre extends his ecological villas in the Punta Pájaros beachfront resort.

“Thanks to Bosco Sodi, I discovered this place on the planet and was immediately struck by the link between art, architecture, and nature,” stated Boris Vervoordt. “Somehow, I wanted to be part of the evolution of this. To experience art in such a “wild” place makes you understand the essence right away.”

Presenting long-term exhibitions, Meridiano opened in February 2023 with a solo by Korean conceptual artist Kimsooja. The show featured a massive stone the artist discovered in the area, which she painted black to dematerialize and reveal its inner space, and a ritualistic performance with fire repeated throughout the duration of the show. For the second exhibition, from September 2023 to January 2024, Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile created a large-scale anthropomorphic sculpture crafted from clay that referenced a pre-Columbian vessel. The monumental work was fabricated on-site with black-pigmented Oaxacan clay in the rectangular room, with its snout-like chimney enthusiastically extending through the open skylight.

The third exhibition, which opened in February 2024, featured four large-scale bronzes by American sculptor Joel Shapiro. Geometric in their bodily shapes and figurative in their dancer-like forms,  the sculptures created a poetic choreography, with two uniquely fashioned works in each room seemingly interacting in Pas de Deux moves. Yet, all four pieces maintained their individual integrity as they sat, stood, or glided across the gallery’s sublime floors and walls.

The current show, on view through June 2025, highlights three sculptural works cast and woven in copper by Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca. The rectangular room offers two wall works woven from cut copper piping into symbolic Andean patterns and fence-like forms that reference social resistance to modernization. The wall works reflect the evolving natural light as day turns into night, while the square space presents equally symbolic, combined copper sticks cast from local trees that ironically act like a sundial under the brightness of the Oaxacan sky.

“The artist’s use of copper is critical in this exhibition, “ Olney told Galerie. “The sun is central to Meridiano’s design. Ximena is interested in the connection between copper and ancient Peruvian sun deities, its role in purification, and its present use in supporting 21st-century communication systems, as well as data storage and processing. Her ability to integrate her research on ancient knowledge and technologies into her work to enhance our understanding of contemporary systems of information and power is very impactful in the space.”

Alongside its breathtaking natural beauty, Meridiano’s secluded location enables artists to explore the creative benefits of being distanced from the commercial art centers in major cities where most currently work. This environment offers a timeless vessel for contemplation, inviting visitors to engage with both the artworks and the changing climatic conditions that enhance their perception of the passage of time.

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