Some may say that what the world needs now is not another art fair. But with Mexico’s premiere fair, Zona Maco, roaring into Mexico City next week, two young gallerists from the country’s capital decided that the fecund art town needed a new fair experience. Thus Material Art Fair was born. Taking place from February 6 through 9, Materials arose from Brett Schultz and Daniela Elbahara, who lead Yuatepec gallery in the San Rafael neighborhood in Districto Federal, after years of participating in the emerging market art fair landscape. It’s no secret by now that Mexico City is a hotbed of native and international artistic talent, so ARTINFO sat down with the duo to talk about the nitty gritty of this new effort and the scene in general.
How did you decide to start this fair? What was the idea behind it?
Brett Schultz: We felt for a long time that Mexico City could use another fair. Zona Maco has been running now for a while — this will be the 11th edition coming up in February. It’s a huge fair with over 100 galleries participating every year, but it’s never really had any satellite fairs. And we felt like we wanted to see a different profile of galleries coming to Mexico City — we wanted to start a new, smaller fair with a focus on emerging practices that are accessibly priced but with a high bar of quality.
For the sake of comparison, could one say it’s like NADA?
BS: Yeah, it’s kind of our influence. The benchmarks we have are NADA in Miami, Texas Contemporary in Houston, Sunday in London, fairs such as those.
And how did you both come to this project?
Daniela Elbahara: Well, Brett and I met in New York when we were studying for our master’s degrees. We came back here to Mexico City and we started Yautepec Gallery, which has been around for six years. All along we’ve been business partners and we decided after doing all these global fairs that it was time to make this one. But it started like, “Why don’t we have our own fair that addresses our needs as a young gallery?” And then we started talking about names and then we started thinking where it should be and then we said: “Let’s do it!”
When did you start organizing it?
DE: A year and half ago.
BS: That would be generous to say. Really, we were looking for a venue for awhile. And we butt up on a lot of things until we found a venue but now we got the perfect space: the Hilton Mexico City Reforma, right next to the center of the city by Parque Alemeda.
How many galleries did you want to have?
BS: It’s going to be a smaller fair. The idea is that we really wanted it to be manageably sized, so people don’t feel lost or overwhelmed. We want an open space in the layout. So we targeted the number to be, say, between 30 and 40 galleries, and it’s going to be a mix of sellers, project spaces, commercial galleries — some super-new, others more established. The idea is that each is bringing new proposals.
What is its international scope like?
BS: It’s going to be more international than Mexican, because it was an important point for us not to compete with Zona Maco. And you know, we are friends with other gallerists participating in Maco and we did not want to create that tension. Our focus for Mexican galleries will be on the best national project spaces nationally, and a lot of what you’re going to see are young, great international galleries from the United States and Europe.
Are there going to be curated sections as well?
BS: You could say the entire fair is curated because our selection committee is advised by the curators. It’s Michel Blancsube from the Fundación Jumex Collection, Guillermo Santamarina, who is the chief curator at Carrilo Gil Art Museum, Dorothée Dupuis, an independent curator from France who is living in Mexico City, and Paola Santoscoy, who is the director of El Eco Experimental and SITAC XI.
How would you describe the emerging scene in Mexico City right now?
BS: In the last two years, you’ve seen a huge rise in the number of apartment galleries popping up — in the last six months, four or five new spaces have opened up. I feel like a lot more young foreigners are coming to Mexico City and bringing these ideas in public galleries and form more casual and informal project spaces with them. And it has been exciting to see that happening because you also see them develop here and the Mexicans getting really into these ideas too and starting spaces. Spaces like No Space, which is run by two artists, and LuLu, run by Chris Sharp, the critic/curator, signal a very international and project-based scene in Mexico City right now.
Do you think the Mexico City scene is a more commercial scene or more creative?
BS: I think there is a market for it. It’s more open with material. Really we’ve seen, as a gallery that represents artists, the local market has grown here a lot in the six years of its existence. People are more willing to take chances. The rise of the project space is indicative of a growing number of serious young artists who want places to exhibit. I think that it’s a good sign and usually the market follows.
What is the sort of price point or what is the price range that you think things will sell for?
BS: I would say we have works from $1000 up.
DE: Like $50,000 at the most. Maybe $20,000. I think a lot of $5,000 to $12,000. So it is still affordable, like our gallery. Many of these galleries have never come to Mexico. That’s really important because sometimes not everyone gets to travel to these places where these galleries are. For example, not too many people go to Berlin, just art people go to Berlin. Or there are two galleries from Milwaukee… like when are you going to Milwaukee? So for them to come here is also very important for culture in general.
