The Must-See Design Exhibitions at Mexico City Art Week
From imaginative takeovers of historic homes to zen-like listening rooms, these exhibitions taking place across the city during Zona Maco merit a spot on any design enthusiast’s itinerary
The burgeoning creative sphere in and around Mexico City come into vivid focus during Zona Maco, which occupies the Citibanamex Centre from February 4–8 and draws collectors from around the world. In response, the city presents an ambitious slate of design exhibitions that extend far beyond the fairgrounds. This year, many place collectible work inside architectural landmarks rarely open to the public, including Casa Alonso Rebaque and Casa Locken, both experimental 1950s-era residences designed by notable architects. Elsewhere, projects such as Fábrica’s inhabitable living gallery encourage visitors to take a beat and engage through sound, furnishings, and shared space. Scroll below to discover more must-see design exhibitions taking place during Mexico City Art Week.
1. Remanencias + Difane
Difane is hosting two concurrent presentations that frame contemporary Mexican design through the lens of image making. A curated selection of collectible works by Kenya Rodríguez + Antonio Pedroza, Cho Studio, Inloft Studio, and Peca Studio highlights uniquely material-driven practices conceived at an architectural scale, each studio contributing pieces that operate as spatial elements with particular attention on geometry and light. Running alongside, architectural photographer Alejandro Ramírez Orozco is debuting his first-ever exhibition, developed with architects and designers across Mexico. Fourteen objects appear both in situ photographs and are physically displayed across the gallery, allowing the visitors to encounter the works both physically and in spectacular architectural contexts.
2. The Resident by Lee Broom
Lee Broom often masterminds memorable displays for his venturesomely sculptural lighting and furniture collections. For his Mexico City debut, the prolific British designer is taking over the historic Diez Company house in Polanco by converting the handsome residence into a dreamy environment awash in a career-spanning array of his luminaires. More than 50 works span the installation, titled The Resident, from familiar pieces revisited in new finishes to commanding large-scale statements that chart the entire scope of his practice. A cascading edition of his Hail Chandelier dramatically descends through the house’s central atrium as the installation’s focal point. Elsewhere, the newly introduced Requiem wall sconce mimics trompe l’oeil wallpaper created with Calico and complements porcelain lighting produced for Lladró.
3. “La Sala” by Fábrica
Fábrica is inaugurating its La Sala event series with a scintillating group exhibition staged as a fully inhabitable living gallery at the atelier of furniture maker Azotea. Conceived as a nomadic domestic setting, the project strives to offer an approachable alternative to the aloof white cube with a shoppable environment teeming with stylish vignettes of furniture, artworks, books, and sculptural objects made by a roster of artists hailing from Mexico City and beyond. Guests will encounter studded marble side tables by Apapacho, ruffled lantern pendants by Kimera Atelier, tulip-shaped sconces by Eny Lee Parker, and tactile vessels by ceramist Victoria Chavez alongside a curated beverage menu and selection of rare vinyl records to spin.
4. Casa Alonso Rebaque
Public access to Casa Alonso Rebaque remains a rarity, which makes this Art Week exhibition especially compelling. Designed in the 1950s by Héctor Alonso Rebaque with Félix Candela, the paraboloid shelled residence has become the setting for a domestic group exhibition that activates nearly every room. Sixteen contemporary artists and designers situated collectible works throughout the house in direct dialogue with its volcanic Pedregal surroundings and swooping, experimental architecture. Highlights include ERM Studio’s geometric Ciénaga Chair in recycled aluminum, Ikpali Studio’s seductive yet sturdy velvet sofa, fractured surrealist sculptures by Otto Martín Moreno, and Lika Atelier’s dazzling glass-and-onyx cocktail tables.
5. Listening Room by Monolith Studio and Taller Batán
Matsumoto Florería has an outsize presence in Mexico City’s botanical identity as the former residence of master Japanese gardener Tatsugoro Matsumoto, who helped introduce jacaranda trees to the city in the early 20th century. That legacy now informs a temporary listening room conceived by Monolith Studio in collaboration with Taller Batán, who transformed the historic space into a pared-back architectural setting devoted entirely to sound. Integrated works by both studios establish a cohesive listening room anchored by the debut of the M_025 Speakers, carved from solid stone with the horn excavated directly from the mass; audio engineering by Melyn Labs allows the stone to function as an acoustic medium. Open by day for casual listening, the room shifts at night into a reservation-only lounge with rotating musical guests.
6. MASA x Modern Art
The enterprising Mexican gallery MASA Galeria is known for bringing its sought-after shows to far-flung locales: a dilapidated Mexico City mansion, the oldest private medical clinic in Oaxaca, and an empty skyscraper in the heart of Roma are just a few of the nontraditional sites. During art week, the venturesome dealer is corralling the global influence on its home turf with a group exhibition realized with Paris and London gallery Modern Art. Details are scarce, but expect works by Eva Rothschild, Francesca Mollett, and Michael E. Smith in conversation with MASA mainstays: Jose Dávila will display a stacked-table assemblage while co-founder Brian Thoreen will present a one-of-a-kind wall-mounted work made in cast beeswax shards.
7. Unique Design X
Returning for its third Mexico City edition, the collectible design fair Unique Design X is gathering new, returning, and emerging galleries at Expo Reforma. The fair draws participants from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas to frame collectible works as key fixtures of our everyday life. This year’s presentation will focus on how objects and surroundings inform daily habits, guided by Bruno Munari’s belief that living itself can be an artistic act. Among this year’s participants are Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Esteban Tamayo, Lionel Jadot, Casa Bosques, James De Wulf, Toro Manifesto, Roham Shamekh, and Lorena Saravia.
8. “Inner Stage” by Studio84
Staged inside the historic Escuela del Ballet Folklórico de México de Amalia Hernández, this site-specific project positions collectible works within a theatrical setting brought to life by performance. Studio84 brings together pieces from UNNO Gallery with new works by Alana Burns, Lucía Echavarría, and Andrea Vargas Dieppa, alongside contributions from cc-tapis, including its first-ever furniture piece conceived by Sabine Marcelis. Brief performances directed by Mauricio Ascencio and carried out by intergenerational female folkloric dancers activate the objects. Echavarría imagines a dressing room sheathed in Colombian and Mexican textiles, Vargas Dieppa debuts contemplative furnishings, and Burns presents a handcrafted daybed.
9. “Jimena Montemayor: Te Veo en el Paris 16”
At Paris 16, a longstanding fixture on Paseo de la Reforma known for pairing bistro classics with rotating exhibitions, local artist and designer Jimena Montemayor has unveiled a series of floral still lifes simpatico with the setting. Each work is carefully drawn and constructed on a blue grid, a recurring device in her practice that also echoes the restaurant’s iconic tilework. Each work celebrates the art of decorating tables with flowers as a gesture of warm hospitality and the pure joy of sharing food with loved ones. The show is also presenting a limited edition of small vessels by Montemayor inspired by the metal vases gracing the bistro’s tables.
10. “Lanza Atelier: Azul y Verde” at AGO Projects
Lanza Atelier’s second solo presentation at AGO Projects arrives during a landmark year for the Mexico City studio founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo after they secured the prestigious Serpentine Pavilion commission. Back at home, this show examines the shared linguistic and cultural roots of the colors blue and green, drawing from histories in which the two hues existed without specific words to distinguish them. Similarly exploring the dissolving of contrasts is a range of new furniture joining updated works from earlier projects, executed in materials such as rebar, sail fabric, and wooden boards that resemble scaffolding. A quarter circle rug split between blue and green grounds the installation—and sets its conceptual tone.
11. Omet at Casa Locken
Omet, the Austin-based collective focused on Mexican design, is also taking over a historic and rarely seen property: Casa Locken, the storied 1957 residence designed by Francisco Artiga. Situated within the ethereal rooms is a tight curation of 16 collectible furnishings, mixing Omet founder Lorena Vieyra’s own designs with new works by architects Tatiana Bilbao, Fernanda Canales, Raúl de la Cerda, and DYAD with Felipe Gómez. “The designs shown by Omet don’t compete with the house, they inhabit it,” Vieyra explains of the home, which is surrounded by the lush vegetation of El Pedregal’s volcanic landscapes. “The building’s free plan, light, and sequence of spaces allow the pieces to be experienced almost as part of the architecture itself.”