My Conversations with Barragán: An Exhibition by Martirene Alcántara
My Conversations with Barragán is a photographic exhibition by Mexican-American visual artist Martirene Alcántara, presented by the Mexican Cultural Institute. The exhibition examines Luis Barragán’s architecture through perception, memory, and emotion, treating his spaces as experiences to be felt rather than merely observed. Alcántara’s images focus on the dialogue among light, color, geometry, rhythm, shadow, reflection, and silence.
Rather than documenting Barragán’s buildings literally, Alcántara isolates fleeting visual details—such as a fragment of color, a passing shadow, or a reflection—and transforms them into meditative, painterly compositions. Her photographs explore how architecture can move beyond its physical structure to become a personal and emotional memory.
When: September 4–13, 2026. The event page lists September 4, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.
Showtimes: No individual performance showtimes are listed. Exhibition visiting hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., and Saturday, 12:00–4:00 p.m.
Venue: Mexican Cultural Institute
Address: 2829 16th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20009
Tickets: Price not available
Exhibition: The photographs investigate the interplay of form, color, and spatial poetry in Luis Barragán’s architecture. Walls, windows, light, and architectural fragments become visual metaphors and abstract studies in composition.
Artist: Martirene Alcántara is a Mexican-American visual artist whose practice bridges photography and painterly abstraction. Born in Mexico City to fine-art painters Ernesto Alcántara and Irma Grizá, she grew up surrounded by color, composition, and visual storytelling. She studied architecture, fine arts, and photography, combining those disciplines into an aesthetic that joins pictorial structure with photographic immediacy.
Artist background: Alcántara began working professionally as a photographer in 1992, undertaking independent creative projects as well as editorial and advertising assignments internationally. Her work distills subjects to light, shadow, rhythm, and other essential visual elements, creating what has been characterized as a meeting point between photography and painting.
Barragán series: Alcántara’s long-term photographic study of Luis Barragán’s architecture explores form, color, and spatial poetry. The series has appeared in international publications, galleries, and museums. Her photographs often use the golden ratio and rule of thirds, while also drawing on the geometry of architecture and the natural world.
Artistic influences: Her visual language is shaped by her painter-parents and by artists including Kazimir Malevich and Aleksandr Rodchenko. Her work includes abstract landscapes, suspended sheets, walking figures, and architectural details, often creating a quiet stillness and emotional intensity associated with the sensory impact of an image.
Recognition: The Museum of Modern Art holds four of Alcántara’s works in its permanent collection. Her photography has also appeared in prominent architectural and cultural publications.
Additional work: Alcántara is the author of several publications, including the bilingual monograph *Misiones Franciscana de Fray Junípero Serra*, which considers the architectural and historical legacy of Spanish missions in Mexico and California. She has also worked as an actress and participated in the 2024 multidisciplinary performance *Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness*, presented at Rice University and Carnegie Hall.
Accessibility: No specific accessibility information is provided.
Ages: No age restriction is listed.
Run time: Not applicable; this is an exhibition.