San Cristóbal de Las Casas. Chiapas, México

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

PH Joel

Consejero-Artista

PH Joel (Joel Pérez Hernández) Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico, 1992. PH Joel is a visual artist of Tseltal-Maya descent. He specializes in painting, sculpture, and performance. His interest focuses on creating images that evoke the great classical Maya civilization, the continuity of tradition intermixed with modernism, and his people’s resistance against past and present colonialities. Joel researches materials native to the Lacandon jungle: clays, mineral and plant-based pigments, wood, bones, stones, etc. Joel organizes the artists’ workshop located at the MUY, together with other artists. PH Joel, among other artists, actively participates in the collective of Maya and Zoque creators, and represents the project when so commissioned.

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

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

The MUY team is complemented by: Fancisco Corso (maintenance and gardening), Silvia Bautista (accountant) and the advisors Josué Gómez Pérez, Edgar Ruíz, Rosa María Cruz Lesbros and Mora Bendesky.