Deborah Kruger

MACO Museum Visit: Sept 23, 2020

Courtyard at MACO

Sandra and I flew to Oaxaca in September 2020 to deliver Abandon to MACO, the Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca. The piece will be included in the Bienal of Painting Rufino Tamayo and start the 4 city tour in Oaxaca. The show will conclude at the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City in 2021.

MACO was the brain child of famous Oaxacan painter Rufino Tamayo and established by Francisco Toledo, one of Mexico’s most celebrated contemporary artists (July 17, 1940 – Sept 5, 2019). MACO is housed in a colonial style building known as the House of Cortés , built at the end of the 17th century. The museum is located in the center of Oaxaca on the Anador, the pedestrian promenade.

Although many museums in Oaxaca were closed, MACO was open and we saw a show from their permanent collection. There was lots of exciting work in mixed media and I’ll share some of my favorites here.

Cantinflas by Peter Liashkov

The first piece that caught my eye was an installation by Peter Lisashkov titled Cantinflas, 2019. An image of Mario Moreno, was silk screened on linen over large images of the Mexican lottery notices. Moreno, known as Cantinflas, was an actor who spoke for the working people. Chains of glass beads, like tears, tumbled out of some of the eyes.

Yagul by Jan Hendrix

In one of the larger galleries, we encountered a wonderful large-scale serigraph by Jan Hendrix, a Dutch artist who moved to Mexico over 40 years ago. Yagul, is a 9 panel piece printed on Japanese rice paper and measures 280 x 300 cm (110 x 118 in). Each of the 9 panels consists of 6 additional panels. Drawing dominates all of Jan’s work, which he takes into the architechtural realm collaborating with workshops throughout Mexico and the USA.

Super Niño by Rubén Leyva

Rubén Leyva painted a large, (150 – 200 cm/59 x 78 in) abstract painting titled Super Niño in 1995. This mostly purple piece had crude, child-like marks and images dancing across the surface in whites and blues. Rubén was influenced by his uncle the painter José Zúñiga

Cuitiu s/f by Frederick Amat

If I was a painter, I would want to make a piece like Cuitiu s/f by Frederick Amat. This artist is hard to categorize, as he works in painting, sculpture, ceramics, video and performance art. This piece is 240 x 230cm (94 x 90 in) and made with paper and mud and the repetitive forms and surface are raw and exciting.
Cuitiu s/f by Frederick Amat (detail)

I was impressed with the quality and variety of work at MACO. I am excited to exhibit my work there beginning in October, 2020. 

Sandra at MACO
Fragment of orIginal wallpaper at MACO
Artist with crate at MACO