About MUY

A cultural space dedicated to contemporary Mayan and Zoque art

Galería MUY is located in the center of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, a city with more than a thousand years of culture. Galería MUY is a cultural center for contemporary art by creators of Mayan and Zoque descent, using all media, from painting and photography to performance and public and relational art in the indigenous communities of Chiapas.

MUY includes exhibition halls, an experimental production workshop, a permanent collection, the MUY historical archives, a program of talks and other events, a residency program, and a physical and online store.

Galería MUY opened its doors in December 2014 and since then it has organized more than 30 exhibitions of Mayan and Zoque artists, in addition to serving as a link between them and several of the most important museums in the country and abroad, thanks to the sensitivity in the world for the cultures of resistance/resilience of indigenous peoples.

And, “MUY” what? – Muy in tsotsil is the root of the word that means pleasure.

Our team

Martha Alejandro

Co-director

Martha Alejandro, Zoque from Rayón, Chiapas, is the co-director of Galería MUY with general coordination and administration responsibilities. Martha has long been a connoisseur of contemporary Zoque art, an art manager and also a creator. She is a graduate from the Technological University of La Selva, and a specialist in tourism. Contact: marthaalejandromuy@gmail.com

Alux A.R

Social media y editor

John Burstein

John Burstein W.

Director Emeritus

As director emeritus of Galería MUY and promoter of local art projects, Burstein co-directs the cultural space and its public relations, and coordinates MUY's curatorial activities. Burstein first arrived in Chiapas in 1973 and since then has founded several civil society organizations in Chiapas with an emphasis on development, public policy and art. Contact: jbmuy@yahoo.com

Maya Juracán

Curadora

Curator and activist Maya Juracán (b. 1987, Guatemala City) has trained in language, literature, social sciences, contemporary art, and cultural management, allowing her to reshape historical narratives through art. In 2011, Juracán founded Proyecto 44, an initiative that brought art to the streets during social protests, laying the groundwork for the Bienal En Resistencia (Biennial in Resistance), a biennial that challenges traditional street spaces in Guatemala. Additionally, Juracán co-curated the 21st Paiz Art Biennial with Gerardo Mosquera and co-created the collective La Revuelta, focused on the exploration of feminist curatorship. In her published essays, Juracán explores counterstructural possibilities within the art world, theorizing new forms of artistic expression. She has been a guest speaker at MoMA PS1 and the Mesa de Museos in Medellín, and has written numerous texts on art, resistance, and systemic revolution through art. She is currently a professor of Contemporary Art History at the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala.

  • The Gale MUY team is complemented by: Silvia Bautista (accountant), advisor Josué Gómez Pérez and Francisco Corso (maintenance and gardening)

Asesores

  • Berenice Valdez Rivera
    Migration Advisor
    Berenice Valdez Rivera is an internationalist who graduated from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and the Sociedad General de Escritores de México (General Society of Writers of Mexico, Querétaro Campus). She works from an intersectional and collective perspective for social well-being, human rights, and environmental respect, promoting art as a key strategy for dialogue, expression, and awareness-raising. She has over 20 years of collaborative and proactive work in resolving complex situations with diverse stakeholders and in influencing decision-makers. She has published and developed materials on migration, human rights, children’s rights, and women in vulnerable contexts. She has participated in collectives and networks promoting leadership and participation of women and people in situations of vulnerability or exclusion, as well as in the coordination of festivals and cultural activities. Her experience has been developed at the local, national, regional, and international levels. She is currently the general focal point for the regional network Latin American Bloc on Migration, collaborates with the MUY Art Space, a Mayan and Zoque art center on migration, and is an independent consultant on human rights, gender, and migration.   

Councillors

Dale y Allen Hermann

Ambassadors

Grace Johnson 

Ambassadors

Lyn Pentecost

Ambassadors

Asesor/Steering Committee:

Pablo Farias, John Govea y David Orr.

  • Resident artists: Creators of Mayan descent who carry out artistic activities in the Gale MUY production studio. They are PH Joel, Darwin Cruz, and Maruch Méndez. To learn more about the artist residencies at Gale MUY, click here.
  • PH Joel

    Consejero-Artista 

    PH Joel (Joel Pérez Hernández) Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico, 1992.
    He is a Tseltal artist specializing in painting, sculpture, and performance. His interest focuses on creating images that evoke the great classical Mayan civilization, the continuation of the blending of tradition and modernism, and resistance to past and present colonialisms. Joel researches materials native to the Lacandon jungle: clays, mineral and plant pigments, wood, bones, stones, etc. Joel organizes the production workshop located at Espacio MUY, along with other artists. PH Joel, among other artists, actively participates in the collective of creators affiliated with MUY and in the direction of the Espacio MUY project.