Mexican Contemporary Art
PicassoMio Gallery Barcelona is pleased to present, in its exhibition Mitos-Mitómanos (Myths-Mythomaniacs), the first European group show of major contemporary Mexican artists, including works by the prestigious photographer Lourdes Grobet, whose pieces have recently been exhibited at MOMA New York and SFMOMA, along with her celebrated book, Lucha Libre: Masked Superstars Of Mexican Wrestling.
Mitos-Mitómanos explores collective myths, created and reinterpreted by the unique Mexican history, in order to help the viewer understand the culture’s capacity for fantasy and magic realism, as well as to learn about Mexican identity. The artists in this exhibition play with the idea of modified reality, which is based on the subjective experience of each person, his education, the place where he is born, and the society’s influence upon him. Specifically within Mexican culture, where myths that challenge reality are ever-present, this modified reality is even more vividly experienced visually. For example, Lourdes Grobet’s portrayal of the famous masked wrestlers exposes not only the myth surrounding them, but the importance of masks within traditional Mexican culture.
In the exhibition, the images that have influenced the artists since their youth—in nature, in cities, in mass media—and which they come to identify as part of themselves, are mixed together and become infused with symbolic meaning. The viewer assimilates these Mexican images and symbols from an ethnographic point of view, and through their contemplation understands that there are “mitomanos” everywhere, just with different names and settings.
The exhibition, which includes photography, installation and paintings, unites the work of eight Mexican artists: Alfredo de Stèfano, René Escalante, Lourdes Grobet, Carlos Pez, Martina Plath, Néstor Quiñones, Carlos Rodal and Paolo Tagliolini.