Contemporary Art Scene
Mérida, Yucatán, has grown into a hub for contemporary art, attracting talented artists from across Mexico and the world. The city’s expanding cultural landscape, fueled by a diverse and dynamic population, has given rise to a rich ecosystem of galleries, studios, and exhibition spaces. At El Zapote Art Gallery, we collaborate with a curated selection of artists who live and work in Mérida, helping to bring their work to local and international audiences.
Artists in Our Gallery
Below, you can explore the artists we represent in Mérida. Click on each name to learn more about their biographies, exhibitions, and collections of artworks.
Stephen Aiken
Stephen Aiken produces abstract and mixed media paintings characterized by vivid colors, irregular shapes, and subtle references to the architecture and nature of Mérida and Yucatán. His work explores visual perception and the interplay of color and form within contemporary contexts.
Renato Chacon
Renato Chacón works in oil, acrylic, and mixed media, exploring figurative landscapes and everyday life scenes. His pieces reflect both memory and environment, capturing the spirit of different cities and its surroundings.
Amelia Opalinska
Working primarily with acrylic and mixed media on canvas, Amelia Opalinska explores formal and material relationships within painting. Her recent assemblage series, incorporating found objects, emerged from an experimental phase supported by El Zapote Gallery through a solo exhibition.
Carlos M Pliego
Carlos M Pliego combines oil, acrylic, and mixed media to create figurative and symbolic compositions. His works often explore urban life, childhood memories, and symbolic motifs, reflecting a dialogue between local culture and personal narratives.
Current Collaborators
Emilio Lameiras
The gallery currently includes works by Emilio Lameiras in its 2024–2025 group exhibition.
Lameiras paints in oil on canvas, often working plein air to capture subtle changes in light and color in the Yucatán landscape.
His recent works depict trees, banana plants, birds, and water reflections, occasionally integrating human elements present in the environment.
His approach, inspired by Impressionism, segments areas of color according to his personal pictorial language.
Education:
Master’s in Visual Arts, Facultad de Artes y Diseño, UNAM (2012–2014)
Bachelor’s in Plastic and Visual Arts, ENPEG “La Esmeralda” (2004–2010)
Jessica Maan
Jessica Maan is featured in the 2024–2025 group exhibition. Working mainly in acrylic on canvas, she depicts Mérida’s urban landscape with literal attention to color and form. Her paintings document daily life under the intense local sun — from colorful buildings, a mix of colonial and contemporary architecture, and lush vegetation, to buses, electrical wires, and street workers — capturing the rhythm of contemporary urban life in Yucatán.
Education:
Diploma in Visual Arts, Central Technical School, Toronto, Canada (2013–2016)
“El Mecánico” Acrylic painting on canvas | Jessica Maan
Previous Collaborators
Walter Cen
Walter Cen has occasionally collaborated with El Zapote since 2022, exhibiting paintings in group shows such as Coronas y Polvo.
His work addresses personal transformation and recovery through varied techniques and styles, ranging from hyperrealist illustration to abstract and fantastical compositions.
Title: “Tispak” | acrylic on canvas | Walter Cen
Title: “❤️” | acrylic on canvas | Walter Cen
Karla Sosa
The gallery has presented works by Karla Sosa since the 2019 summer group exhibition.
Her cut-paper pieces explore natural and architectural motifs, creating compositions characterized by precise line work, movement, and organic structures.
Sosa’s practice combines design sensibility with meticulous craftsmanship, highlighting the contrast between structure and fluidity within her detailed paper compositions.
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic and Advertising Design
Professional artist since 2014
Cut Paper Artwork by Karla Sosa | Representation of Duality
Irvim Victoria
Irvim Victoria collaborated with El Zapote in 2022–2023, presenting canvas paintings in group exhibitions.
His practice combines abstract and figurative approaches with a tendency toward Surrealism, exploring emotions, introspection, and the human mind.
Victoria often incorporates dreamlike and science fiction–inspired imagery, including references to urban landscapes and characters from television media, creating expressive compositions in color and form.
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts, Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán (ESAY), Mérida, Yucatán
Master’s Degree in Visual Arts, Painting Specialization, Posgraduate Unit, Facultad de Artes y Diseño, UNAM
Title: “Moscos” | oil on canvas | Irvim Victoria
Title: “Viaje sin retorno” One-Way Journey | acrylic on canvas | Walter Cen
Previously Represented Artists
Markéta Loman Vogelová
Markéta Loman Vogelová is a visual artist working across painting, printmaking, and textile art.
Since relocating to Mérida in 2011, she developed a distinctive visual language inspired by ancestral symbols and storytelling, exploring memory, identity, and the relationship between image and myth.
Education and Background:
Bachelor’s in Textile Art, Academy of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, Prague (2006)
Studies in Art, Design, and Illustration in Prague (CZ), Florence (IT), Jerusalem (IL), and Kent (UK)
Her artistic research draws from North American petroglyphs and indigenous mythologies, developing an iconography expressed through linocut and mixed media processes.
She combines visual investigation with community-based textile projects that highlight cultural connection and collective creation.
Title: “Morning meditation” | Linocut on paper | Markéta Loman Vogelová
Title: “Markéta Loman V. setting up exhibition”
Robert Gutowski
Robert Gutowski is a printmaker and educator whose work reflects decades of international experience.
His series Bedouin Life in Egypt from Metal Etching Plates, shown at El Zapote in 2020, captured everyday scenes in El Arish near the Red Sea.
His refined technique and sensitivity to place give his works a depth rooted in direct observation.
Education and Career:
BS in Art Education and Printmaking, SUNY Buffalo (1961)
MFA in Printmaking, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (1971)
Active since the early 1960s, Gutowski has combined artistic and educational practice throughout his career.
He taught art, served as a Peace Corps volunteer and staff member in Latin America, and traveled through South and Central America before returning to teach in Brooklyn, where he joined the Brooklyn Basement Printmakers collective.
Exploring the Mérida Art Scene
Beyond the artists in our gallery, Mérida hosts a diverse community of contemporary creators.
From emerging talents to established practitioners, the city offers a range of artistic practices including painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and mixed media installations.
Art lovers can explore local studios, galleries, and public exhibitions, making Mérida a unique destination for experiencing Mexican contemporary art.
Independent Spaces and Artistic Continuity
Independent galleries like El Zapote play an essential role in Mérida’s art ecosystem, providing spaces for experimentation and dialogue between artists at different career stages.
Through exhibitions, collaborations, and ongoing documentation, the gallery contributes to the visibility and continuity of artistic practices in Yucatán, fostering connections between local creation and broader cultural contexts.
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