Ciudad Juarez Art Museum Announces First 2026 Exhibition Program
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, February 24 – The Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ), under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL), has announced its first exhibition program for 2026. The program features three national artists: Pedro Valtierra, Gustavo Márquez, and Ariatna Sánchez, bringing together artists from Zacatecas, Chihuahua, and Mexico City to foster dialogue across diverse territorial and generational contexts.
The exhibitions will be open to the public from Friday, March 6, 2026, until May 31, 2026. The MACJ operates from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Sundays from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
“Volver a la tierra del quetzal” by Pedro Valtierra
The exhibition “Volver a la tierra del quetzal” by renowned photojournalist Pedro Valtierra (Fresnillo, Zacatecas, 1955) returns to the MACJ. This exhibition was originally inaugurated 42 years ago under the title “Bienvenidos a la tierra del Quetzal.” The work was recently re-exhibited at the Centro de la Imagen in 2025 and subsequently at the Museo de Arte de Sinaloa before arriving in Ciudad Juarez.
The exhibition features original and period prints from Valtierra’s reportage documenting the internal conflict in Guatemala in the early 1980s for the newspaper unomásuno. Valtierra captured the arrival of Mayan refugees fleeing repression and seeking asylum in Mexico, as well as Guatemalan guerrillas fighting for their country’s liberation. This visual testimony highlights the emotional complexity of displacement and conflict, emphasizing photography’s social responsibility.
Pedro Valtierra is a leading photojournalist in Mexico and Latin America, with a career spanning five decades. His work has been featured in over 400 individual and collective exhibitions globally and is part of international collections, including the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. He has received numerous accolades, including the National Journalism Award (1983 and 2014) and the King of Spain Award (1998).
“Syncretisms” by Gustavo Márquez
In the North Semicircular Hall of the MACJ, the exhibition “Syncretisms” by Gustavo Márquez (Chihuahua, 1988) will be presented. This series of mixed-media works and paintings explores the cultural syncretism of Mexico, reflecting on the fusion of European, indigenous, and African roots in culture, language, traditions, beliefs, and genetics. The exhibition pays homage to ancestral heritage and invites reflection on the passage of time and the fragility of memory.
Márquez, a graduate in Plastic Arts from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, has a diverse career in visual arts, editorial illustration, teaching, and performing arts. He has held individual exhibitions in Chihuahua and Ciudad Juarez since 2013 and has collaborated as an editorial illustrator for the Chihuahua Ministry of Culture.
“La ensoñación como práctica de resistencia” by Ariatna Sánchez
The South Semicircular Hall will host “La ensoñación como práctica de resistencia” by Ariatna Sánchez (Mexico City, 1991). This artistic research, developed between 2018 and 2023, examines the dynamics of office work-time organization, social relationships, and motivations-through the artist’s experiences as an applicant, employee, and through contextual interventions in various Mexico City spaces.
The research is structured into three chapters:
- Chapter I, “Prácticas de la monotonía” (Practices of Monotony): Addresses moments of distraction and leisure in office work through interventions using stationery and work tools, focusing on collection, repetition, and time measurement.
- Chapter II, “La Estafa” (The Scam): Analyzes labor strategies based on the implantation of aspirations and manipulation of motivations, drawing from the artist’s experience in a training for a phantom company.
- Chapter III, “Las horas del no” (The Hours of No): Gathers graphic materials from workshops and collective mapping exercises with office workers.
Sánchez’s work questions how art can serve as an alternative or complement to traditional work organization, inviting a critical reflection on labor and daily life. Ariatna Sánchez is a visual artist with a master’s degree in Art and Environment. Her work focuses on cartographies, diagrams, and interventions that record daily experiences in routine architectural spaces. She has exhibited individually and collectively, and is currently a visual arts professor at the Faculty of Higher Studies Aragón, UNAM.
The exhibition program is supported by various institutions, including the Subsecretaría de Cultura Zona Norte, Centro de la Imagen, Fundación Pedro Valtierra, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Indelek, Museo de Arte de Sinaloa, Fondo Transborder, and Azul Arena gallery.
For more information, please contact [email protected] or call 656 146 1630.
