Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City - The New York Times

22/3/16 2:49

http://nyti.ms/22iMMO1

Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City

Thanks to a new arts and crafts movement, the
galleries there are as cutting-edge as the food.
Wanderlust
By JULIA CHAPLIN

MARCH 15, 2016

A former 16th-century trade outpost some 285 miles northwest of Mexico City
in Jalisco state, Guadalajara is one of Mexicos most traditional cities, a place
where leafy boulevards are patchworked with French Baroque colonial
mansions. Until recently, the art in Guadalajara has tended toward the folkloric:
The town is primarily known for earthen ceramics, as well as for mariachi bands
(the genre originated in the region). It used to be that creative people got out of
here as soon as possible, says the artist Eduardo Sarabia, who moved to
Guadalajara from Los Angeles and co-founded an art laboratory called PAOS
that hosts residencies and exhibits in the stark studio that once belonged to the
great Modernist muralist Jos Clemente Orozco. But thats changed. Sarabia
is part of a wave of young artists and gallerists whore remaking the town into a
sort of mellow, sunny-skies utopia. Hes joined by the young Spaniards Silvia
Ortiz and Ins Lpez-Quesada, who opened a branch of their Madrid gallery,
Travesa Cuatro, in the upscale Colonia Lafayette neighborhood a few years ago
in order to be closer to some of their key artists local talent who have seen
their stars rise on the contemporary scene, including Jose Dvila, Gonzalo
Lebrija and Jorge Mndez Blake.
The newcomers are drawn to the beautiful Art Deco architecture, the lack of
traffic, the cheap rents and the easy access to some of the countrys best
fabricators and workshops. In the last few years, the local pottery maker
Cermica Suro has started producing pieces for the likes of Jorge Pardo, Marcel
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/t-magazine/travel/guadalajara-mexico-arts.html?_r=0

Pgina 1 de 5

Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City - The New York Times

22/3/16 2:49

Dzama and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Were out of the mainstream here, says
Francisco Curro Borrego Vergara, a Guadalajara native who returned here
from London to start Curro & Poncho gallery, which is known for its edgy
contemporary art, mostly by Latin Americans, including the mixed-media artists
Gabriel Rico and Cristin Silva. And so we have a clean slate to explore our own
interests.

Casa Fayette
The Mexican firm Grupo Habita opened this 37-room hotel last fall in a
1940s mansion and an adjoining minimalist building in the Art Deco-rich
Colonia Lafayette district. The interiors make the most of the neighborhoods
heritage, with skinny velvet couches, salmon-pink walls and a leafy, geometrictiled courtyard, perfect for a mezcal Negroni (mezcal, Campari, vermouth,
orange peel) in the evening. At lunchtime, locals and expats take meetings in the
dining room, which resembles a mash-up between the Beverly Hills Hotel and a
Milanese gentlemans apartment, with palm-tree-print-upholstered chairs
fringed in gold, mirrored columns and an elegant gold-and-wood bar.

Hueso
Hueso means bone in Spanish, and indeed, the interior walls of this
restaurant in a restored 1940s Modernist house in Colonia Lafayette are covered
with more than 10,000 animal bones. The renowned 44-year-old chef-owner
Alfonso Cadenas organic, spicy, creative and locally sourced dishes burnt
tortilla with chorizo powder and freshly harvested pink peppercorns; leche de
tigre (shrimp with lemon, black calamari ink, jicama and cucumber) are
served at a long communal table.

Alcalde
Thirty-two-year-old chef Paco Ruano apprenticed at Copenhagens Noma
before returning home to open this warm yet industrial restaurant, which has
candy-colored chandeliers, tiled floors and a facade of retractable glass for semialfresco dining. Try the tempura-fried chayote root (a starchy local vegetable)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/t-magazine/travel/guadalajara-mexico-arts.html?_r=0

Pgina 2 de 5

Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City - The New York Times

22/3/16 2:49

accompanied by avocado leaf sauce and yogurt, and the innovative take on the
cheese tamale, reimagined with shaved macadamia nuts and mushroom
powder.

Pare de Sufrir ... Tome Mezcal

The name of this lively mezcal bar and nightclub in Colonia Americana,
which translates to Stop suffering ... drink mezcal, was inspired by a wellknown Brazilian church slogan. Theres a mural of a retro tour bus, a D.J.
spinning everything from electro-cumbia to mambo and a bar serving dozens of
varieties of mezcal from Oaxaca, Jalisco and Michoacn. (Try one of the
Oaxacan tobala blends, which taste appealingly like distilled dirt.) The space is
always packed with revelers mostly tipsy twenty- and thirtysomethings
dancing late into the night. 011-52-33-3826-1041

Hospicio Cabaas
This 19th-century neo-Classical hospice complex is best known for its
domed chapel, which was decorated by the muralist Jos Clemente Orozco in
the late 1930s. Orozco covered the walls and vaulted ceilings of the chapel with
57 vivid and gory frescoes, filled with blades, crosses and slaughtered Indians
a masterpiece retelling of Mexican history. Listed as a Unesco World Heritage
site, today the building houses a cultural institute that mounts art exhibits.

Travesa Cuatro
Spaniards Ins Lpez-Quesada and Silvia Ortiz opened this gallery three
years ago in the Casa Franco, a 1929 house designed by the Modernist master
Luis Barragn. Because its landmarked, the gallery feels less like an art space
and more like a home that happens to have interesting work displayed on its
white stucco walls.

Curro & Poncho

A showcase for Guadalajaras emerging talent, this gallery in Puerta de
Hierro, a high-end commercial district on the northern outskirts of the city, is
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/t-magazine/travel/guadalajara-mexico-arts.html?_r=0

Pgina 3 de 5

Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City - The New York Times

22/3/16 2:49

located on the ground floor of the futuristic Cube Tower, designed by the
Spanish architect Carme Pins. Curro shows mostly conceptual artists and
sculptors many of them architects-turned-artists whose work often
interacts with the space in unexpected ways. The raucous opening receptions,
usually held in the courtyard on Saturday afternoons, are legendary, with
copious amounts of cold beer, tequila and traditional nieve de garrafa, a waterbased sorbet.

Julia y Renata
Designed by sisters Julia and Renata Franco, the clothes here floorsweeping asymmetrical dresses and boxy blouses in shades of luminous white
and chocolate are geometric and crisp, and made in luxurious, drapey silks.
The space itself is equally elegant, with clean lines that recall Barragns best
work. 011-52-33-3630-4265
A version of this article appears in print on March 20, 2016, on page M2174 of T Magazine with the
headline: Arts and Crafts Movement.

Trending
1. U.S. Says It May Not Need Apples Help to Unlock iPhone

2.
3.
4.

Most Republicans Feel Embarrassed by Campaign, Poll Says

2 Explosions Bring Brussels Airport to a Halt
Cuba Meeting Between Obama and Castro Exposes Old Grievances

5.

Basics: Parrots Are a Lot More Than Pretty Bird

6.

Donald Trump Pushes Serious Image in the Capital

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/t-magazine/travel/guadalajara-mexico-arts.html?_r=0

Pgina 4 de 5

Guadalajara, Mexicos Party City - The New York Times

22/3/16 2:49

7.

Sidebar: John Roberts Criticized Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Before

There Was a Vacancy

8.

The Mideast Came to Idaho State. It Wasnt the Best Fit.

9.

2016 Delegate Count and Primary Results

10.

Andrew S. Grove, Longtime Chief of Intel, Dies at 79

View More Trending Stories

2016 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/t-magazine/travel/guadalajara-mexico-arts.html?_r=0

Pgina 5 de 5