Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Mexico has one of the richest, most complex cultural traditions in Latin America, with roots extending deep into ancient Mesoamerican culture. It should therefore come as no surprise that it is at the forefront of the global contemporary art scene. Mexicans began, in 1910, a violent struggle that stretched over two decades and which irretrievably changed their country's identity. This checkered history has expressed itself vividly in Mexican art, beginning with the internationally renowned and politically charged muralist movement and continuing up to the present day. This renewed focus is turning Mexico into a magnet for international artists, curators, and galleries, who are starting to settle there.



Contemporary Art Mexico highlights 110 of the most prominent players, including seventy artists and forty personalities and institutions. Featured artists include such older-generation figures as Graciela Itrubide and Eduardo Terrazas; hugely influential figures from the 1990s such as Gabriel Orozco, Teresa Margolles, and Melanie Smith; and such emerging talents as Edgardo Aragón, Inaki Bonillas, and Marco Rountree Cruz. Leading commercial galleries, curators, collectors, and other key cultural figures are also featured, as well as critical essays by foremost critics and art historians.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Contemporary Art Mexico, part of an ongoing series of introductions to contemporary art around the world edited by Amirsadeghi, offers a survey of Mexican developments, primarily from the 1990s to the present. Three short, informative essays, by Daniel Garza Usabiaga, María Minera, and Tanya Barson, trace the complicated history of modern and contemporary art in Mexico, addressing (especially Garza Usabiaga's essay) the divisive and, for many young artists, stultifying legacy of the politically engaged and officially sponsored mural painting that became national orthodoxy in the first half of the 20th century. The essays precede and introduce a series of alphabetically ordered, well-illustrated entries, each of one to four pages, on 72 artists and 43 institutions (artists' collectives, galleries, museums, and schools) and arts professionals (curators, gallerists, and collectors) that have contributed to Mexico's fertile and lively contemporary art scene. The unsigned entries provide basic details of artists' biographies and career trajectories as well as institutional and collection histories. The volume also includes a time line of major cultural and historical events. Contemporary Art Mexico offers the general reader an accessible, visually attractive overview of recent artistic production in Mexico. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and professionals. --Eduardo de Jesus Douglas, University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill