Styles
17 March 2023
Deeply rooted in tradition but resolutely turned towards modernity, Mexican design is experiencing a revival. From San Miguel de Allende to Mexico City, the new capital of design, a generation of Mexicans is breaking the codes of Latin American craftsmanship and creating a more daring and distinctive aesthetic. Always folkloric and eclectic, vibrant and explosive, the made in Mexico becomes sharp and incongruous.
The art of Frida Kahlo and the architecture of Luis Barragán, Juan O’Gorman and Javier Senosiain have left their mark, as has the heritage of pre-Hispanic ancestors. And as design reclaims the glory of craftsmanship, this deep passion for Mexico and its cultural past, mixed with diverse contemporary influences, becomes the basis for a rich and desirable creation. Descifrado.
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Design
CRAFT
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Range
FULL
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Representative
LUIS BARRAGÀN
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Ancestor
MAYAS
Mexico City, the new design capital
Last February, Mexico City Art Week (ZSONAMACO México Arte Contemporáneo), the largest Latin American art fair, was held for the third time in the heart of the Mexican capital. It was an opportunity for galleries and design studios to take over the city’s emblematic addresses.
This is the example of the Latin American gallery UNNO, which exceptionally took up residence in the library of the UNAM, Mexico City’s university campus and a symbol of Mexican progress. Entitled Poesía en Piedra, its exhibition presented the works of contemporary artists and designers inspired by the revolutionary architecture of modern Mexico against a cultural and social backdrop. Their names: Rodrigo Pinto, Ohla Studio, Ian Felton, Abel Carcamo, C. S. Nuñez.
Another historic venue that was brilliantly besieged during Mexico City Art Week was Luis Barragán’s legendary Casa Gilardi. The Mexico City-based gallery Studio 84 brought together the latest creations of cc-tapis and Atelier De Troupe in a vibrant installation of colour, contrast and volume, reflecting Barragán’s architectural work.
Since 2009, Design Week Mexico has also been helping to establish Mexico City as a true designer capital. The last one, which took place in October 2022, revealed a new ephemeral showcase of Mexican design: Design House. For one month, this modernist house designed by Mexican architect Enrique Castañeda Tamborrel will be transformed into a hybrid platform concentrating the collaborative projects of some twenty local architects, designers and artists.
Colours of Mexico
MESTIZ is one of the emerging designers who are making Mexico’s colours shine. This San Miguel de Allende-based firm pigments its work with explosive tones. While the materials are traditional (wood, rattan, ceramics), Mestiz liberates the forms of craftsmanship and celebrates Mexico’s nature through unusual pieces with zoomorphic lines.
The approach of Andrés Gutiérrez, designer and founder of the concept-store-gallery ORIGINARIO, is equally captivating. In the heart of Mexico City, the designer has created a world of his own, disrupting the rustic image of Mexico through a selection of authentic, eccentric and resolutely eclectic designers. His playful pieces are inspired by Aztec legends and civilisations.
An uninhibited look at the craft
More daring than ever, the young guard of Mexican designers is determined to renew the aesthetic associated with Mexican craftsmanship. Panorammma Atelier, Comitē de Proyectos and Algo Studio are the new representatives of this ultra cheerful and uninhibited movement, which is nevertheless firmly rooted in tradition.
Mexican minimalism
If we are familiar with a colourful and colourful Mexican design, exalted by the heretical palette of Luis Barragán and the magical fantasy of Frida Kahlo, contemporary Mexican galleries (Studio IMA, Habitación 116, Difane, Masa, Luteca) also perpetuate the aesthetic currents of the masters of modernism, and draw on the stripped-down codes of their pre-Hispanic ancestors in order to express a contemplative asceticism. An ode to the simplicity and beauty of the material.
The neo-haciendas, haunts between tradition and modernity
The exoticism of Mexico is also expressed with taste and eclecticism in the country’s contemporary addresses: Los Milagros, Quinta Amores, Tulum Treehouse, Baja Club, Casa TO, Círculo Mexicano. New designers and architects are reviving the codes of Mexico through haciendas 2.0, heavenly havens halfway between folklore, tradition and modernity.
