El Renacimiento

In the 20 years since Zélika García launched Zona Maco, she has observed the Mexico City-based contemporary art fair make a name for itself in the international art world, sweeping up the rest of the locale into the ever-broadening scope of its influence.

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“People started growing,” reflects García, a perceptive and personable redhead who still wears a wide-eyed air of excitement even now. She lights up as she reminisces about the early days of the fair, now one of the largest in Latin America. “When Germany, Spain, and Switzerland started to come, all these exchanges started to happen. It was the best thing to happen to artists, galleries, and museums in Mexico.”

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Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, García, 46, always gravitated toward art. As a child, she explored exhibitions with her grandmother and fell in love with the work of Georgia O’Keeffe. Studying art at the University of Monterrey, she traded works with her peers. García initially thought she would be an artist herself, but a fateful visit in 1996 to the Mexican fair Expoarte Guadalajara changed her idea of what art could be.

In the early aughts, a shift in the art world was underway, and García caught the wave. Fresh out of college, she traveled to the EXPO Chicago art fair. There, she personally introduced herself to every gallerist in hopes of bringing them to her home country, where, she would emphasize to them, a dynamic art scene was fast emerging. Down in Florida, Art Basel Miami Beach was just getting off the ground under the direction of Sam Keller. The two young directors became fast friends and bonded over a shared vision for a new era of art fairs.

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“I met many, many galleries,” García remembers of the two years leading up to her first fair—and the one that set the stage for Zona Maco—Muestra 1, which she produced back in her hometown in 2002. “I had all the business cards and would write down everyone’s descriptions on the back to remember them. Everybody told me it was never going to work.” Finally, she found a few people who understood her vision. Slowly—then rapidly—the project came into its own.

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In 2003, García made the fateful move to Mexico City, some 600 miles away, for Muestro 2. As director, she expanded the programming while forming a core team that initially included Pablo del Val, now the artistic director of Art Dubai. By the following year, enough galleries were applying that García put together a selection committee. With that, the fair was reborn under the moniker Zona Maco. The debut was an icebreaker for the emerging art scene and the general public at a time when many galleries still operated out of private residences. Now the fair boasts more than 200 galleries from 25 countries. This year, New York newcomers like Jack Shainman and Kates-Ferri Projects joined locals from the original roster—such as Kurimanzutto, Travesía Cuatro, and OMR. “The galleries, collectors, and artists are the ones that make it happen,” García emphasizes. “We only get them together and give them a space.”