My Conversations with Barragán: An Exhibition by Martirene Alcántara
My Conversations with Barragán is a photography installation by Mexican-American visual artist Martirene Alcántara, presented by the Mexican Cultural Institute. The exhibition explores Luis Barragán’s architecture through perception, memory, and emotion, treating his spaces not merely as structures to be documented but as experiences shaped by light, color, geometry, rhythm, shadow, reflection, and silence.
Alcántara’s photographs focus on details that might otherwise go unnoticed, including fleeting shadows, fragments of color, reflections, and changing patterns of light. Her images transform walls, windows, and architectural forms into meditative abstractions, inviting viewers to consider how architecture can become a deeply personal and emotional encounter.
When: September 4–December 5, 2026
Visiting Hours: Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.; Saturday, 12:00–4:00 p.m.
Venue: Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20009
Tickets: Price not available
Artist: Martirene Alcántara
Exhibition Focus: The installation examines Luis Barragán’s architecture through visual perception, recollection, and feeling. Rather than presenting straightforward architectural records, Alcántara distills each subject to its emotional and visual essence, emphasizing light, shadow, color, rhythm, spatial poetry, and geometry.
About the Artist: Alcántara is a Mexican-American visual artist whose practice connects photography with 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 the immediacy of photography.
Career: Alcántara began working professionally as a photographer in 1992, undertaking independent projects as well as editorial and advertising assignments internationally. Her long-term study of Luis Barragán’s architecture has been featured in international publications, galleries, and museums. The Museum of Modern Art holds four of her works in its permanent collection, and her photography has appeared in prominent architectural and cultural publications.
Artistic Approach: Influenced by her parents and by artists including Kazimir Malevich and Alexander Rodchenko, Alcántara uses color to create emotional resonance. Her compositions draw on classical principles such as the golden ratio and rule of thirds while exploring geometry in architecture and the natural world. Abstract landscapes, suspended sheets, walking figures, and architectural fragments appear as quiet, emotionally charged images with a sensory intensity comparable to the subjective impact of a significant detail or moment.
Other 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 been credited as an actress and took part in the 2024 multidisciplinary performance *Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness*, presented at Rice University and later at Carnegie Hall. Her current work includes photography and travel journals focused on architecture, portraiture, and cultural landscapes, as well as creative direction and visual production for international collaborations.
Note: The installation is available to experience during the Mexican Cultural Institute’s stated visiting hours.