A Laid-Back Mexican City With Art Around Every Corner
- - A Laid-Back Mexican City With Art Around Every Corner
Text byDecember 30, 2025 at 12:46 AM
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A Laid-Back Mexican City With Art at Every Turn BERNARDO ARCOS/ARCHIVO JAVIER MARIN
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In a secret location in Mérida’s Centro neighborhood sits an unassuming old auto repair shop. Hidden behind its roll-up steel doors is a vibrant gallery dedicated to Mexican artists. Galería Secreta is the brainchild of Mario Torre, who transformed the business started by his great-grandfather in the 1940s into an art-filled destination.
Artwork by Alexa Torre at Galería Secreta Courtesy Galería Secreta
It is hardly the exception in the 16th-century Spanish colonial city, the capital of Mexico’s Yucatán state, where art can be found around every corner. Creative types, from the late painter James Brown to designers Laura Kirar and Angela Damman to the prodigious collectors César and Mima Reyes, have long been drawn to the area’s architectural beauty, slower pace, and rich cultural scene. The world-renowned artist Jorge Pardo has transformed several local historic properties into art installations. His architectural intervention at Tecoh, which can be viewed by appointment, sits on 740 acres in the Yucatán jungle and is made up of an otherworldly sprawl of buildings, pools, and sculptures.
A tiled corridor in Hotel Sevilla Courtesy Design Hotels
The Hotel Sevilla, with 17 rooms and four suites, just opened within a restored 16th-century casona punctuated with sculptural concrete pieces like a slab as a bar and a striking spiral staircase. Designed by the Mexico City–based studio Zeller & Moye, it’s the latest offering from Grupo Habita, run by the art collector Carlos Couturier and Moisés, Rafael, and Jamie Micha. Rafael Micha says that for him, Mérida is the most exciting destination in Mexico at the moment, with its “mix of colonial and 19th-century architecture, archaeological sites, and culinary experiences.”
Local curator Mariana Manzanero, who organizes cultural experiences through her company Viajes Misterio, says she’s “witnessed the city’s transformation into a vibrant hub where art, design, and gastronomy come together with authenticity and vision.” Her favorite spaces, she says, use art to inspire locals as much as tourists. Among them are the arts-and-crafts shop Barro de Sac Chich and Plantel Matilde, a surreal-looking arts complex with exhibition spaces designed by the Mexican sculptor Javier Marín.
A courtyard in Hacienda Subin Pepe Molina
The dining room at Salón Gallos Eva Garcia
The food in Mérida is just as imaginative as the art. At Huniik, designed by Pardo to resemble a cenote, chef Roberto Solís sends out dishes like yellowfin tuna wrapped in herb leaves served with “Yucatecan ponzu,” his modern take on the regional cuisine. Salón Gallos is more than a cantina serving great tacos; it’s also a gallery, cinema, and cultural center that hosts international DJs. One-off dinners at Hacienda Subin, a centuries-old Moorish-style ruin restored by Kirar and her husband, Richard Frazier, are memorable experiences. Kirar urges visitors to explore the area’s indigenous culture with a visit to the nearby ruins of Uxmal. “Once you understand the foundations of Mayan culture, then you start to see it reflected everywhere,” she says. “In the art, the design, and even today’s food culture.”
This story originally appeared in the Winter 2025/2026 issue of Harper’s Bazaar.
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