Crowds of VIPs filled the aisles of the sprawling Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City on Wednesday (5 February) for the preview of Zona Maco, which boasts more than 220 galleries across several sectors.
Also in the Sur sector, New York’s Palo Gallery is showing a solo stand of paintings and works on paper by the Liberia-born, New York-based artist Lewinale Havette. The works—some ghostly and monochromatic, others vibrantly saturated—are informed by Havette’s childhood experiences as a young girl migrating across West Africa with her family. They are priced between $1,500 for smaller works on paper, several of which sold during the preview, and $22,000 for the largest piece on view.
The gallery’s founder, Paul Henkel, says that “the fair has been incredible”, adding: “We are obviously a US gallery with European ties, so our immediate action was from the clients who already knew us and Lewinale Havette. However, we got a lot more engagement from Latin American collectors we have never met than expected. The general vibe was passionate curiosity and confidence in buying from a gallery they did not know yet, which was great.”
