Contemporary art in Tamaulipas, Mexico, will take center stage starting this Thursday, August 13. This will happen when the Tamaulipas Museum of Contemporary Art ( MAT) simultaneously opens two exhibitions that, from distinct and unique perspectives, establish a dialogue with the creative process, the landscape, and the artistic memory of the border region.
These are “ZIG-ZAG: Lines in Time, ” by Tamaulipas-based artist Mary Carmen Aguirre, and “Landscape: A Look Inward, ” an exhibition featuring works from the Tamaulipas Art Museum’s collection.
Both exhibitions offer visitors the opportunity to explore the individual career of an artist with four decades of experience alongside a selection from the state’s artistic heritage. Both exhibitions transform the museum’s galleries into a meeting place for different generations, artistic languages, and ways of understanding the art world and the local landscape.
Four Decades of Creativity
With “ZIG-ZAG: Lines Through Time, ” Mary Carmen Aguirre presents a retrospective that spans some 40 years of creation, exploration, and transformation. An architect and visual artist, Aguirre has built a remarkable career in disciplines such as painting, drawing, printmaking, and object-paintings.
His work lies “at the intersection of geometry, intuition, and the construction of symbolic universes—elements that, over the years, have shaped a visual language all his own,” in his own words.
The exhibition allows visitors to observe precisely that evolution to which the artist refers—the changes in textures, forms, concerns, and emotions that have accompanied her at different times
In addition to presenting a chronological sequence of works, “ZIG-ZAG: Lines in Time” offers a journey through the paths her artistic practice has taken. The exhibition explores how certain ideas disappear, return, or take on new meanings over time.
The exhibition thus invites visitors to explore the premise: “What does time look like when it becomes art?” It does so by bringing together different stages of a career in which “spiritual, emotional, and conceptual concerns regarding the human experience converge,” according to the museum’s press release.
The retrospective also offers insight into the work of this artist, who hails from Tamaulipas. Furthermore, it highlights a career that has taken shape within the region.
The Landscape Beyond the Visible
The second exhibition, “Landscape: A Look Inward, ” takes a genre widely recognized in the art history of Tamaulipas and explores it from a more personal perspective. Comprising works from the Tamaulipas Art Museum’s collection, the exhibition brings together pieces by Mexican artists from different generations. The pieces offer a journey through diverse ways of representing, interpreting, and experiencing the state’s landscape.
“But the exhibition is not limited to viewing the territory as a physical space. It also invites us to reflect on the relationship between what exists before our eyes and what takes place within the observer,” states a press release from the museum. In this way, the landscape becomes a starting point for reflecting on perception, memory, and emotions. At the same time, it showcases the different ways in which artists have forged connections with their surroundings and identity. The exhibition also provides an opportunity for the public to engage with part of the artistic heritage preserved in the state archives and to view it from a new perspective.
Two Exhibitions, Different Ways of Seeing
Although they are based on different concepts and materials, the two exhibitions find common ground in memory and the passage of time. The way art transforms individual and collective experience is also part of the journey.
While Mary Carmen Aguirre looks back on four decades of her own work and allows viewers to trace the evolution of her artistic language, “Landscape: A Look Inward” brings together works from different generations. The goal: to foster a collective reflection on the perception of the environment.
The opening thus offers an opportunity to explore both an individual artistic journey and a part of Tamaulipas’s artistic heritage. It is undoubtedly an evening dedicated to celebrating the diversity of voices and languages present in artistic creation.
These exhibitions are part of the ongoing exhibition program at the Tamaulipas Museum of Contemporary Art. This year marks the museum’s 24th anniversary as a venue where the public can engage with national and international contemporary art.
La inauguración de “ZIG-ZAG: Líneas en el tiempo” y “Paisaje: una mirada al interior” se llevará a cabo este jueves 13 de agosto, a partir de las 20:00 horas, en las instalaciones del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Tamaulipas (MACT) que se ubica en la Avenida Constitución esquina con Calle 5ª Colonia Jardín en Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México.
Discover more exhibitions in Mexico and Latin America in AW Magazine.
