Colección Jumex

Colección Jumex is a private contemporary art collection owned by Eugenio López Alonso, housed at Museo Jumex in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. The museum, which opened in November 2013, serves as the main outpost of Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo and is widely regarded as one of the most significant collections of contemporary art in Latin America. Its mission centers on promoting the production, discussion, and knowledge of contemporary art in Mexico through exhibitions, public programs, and support for artists and researchers.

Eugenio López Alonso purchased his first work of Mexican art in 1994 and that same year cofounded Chac Mool Gallery in Los Angeles with art advisor Esthella Provas, marking the symbolic beginning of what would become Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo. Throughout the 1990s, López Alonso traveled and researched how to build a collection that would encourage the development of artists of his generation in Mexico. The foundation was officially established on March 3, 2001, with a team of art professionals to promote contemporary art through collecting, education, research, and funding programs. From 2001, the collection was first exhibited publicly at Galería Jumex, a 15,000 square foot space designed by Gerardo García on the premises of the Grupo Jumex juice plant in Ecatepec de Morelos, an industrial suburb approximately 19.5 km from Mexico City. The remote location and strict security requiring appointments limited attendance. In 2013, the institution moved to its current purpose-built museum in Polanco. The museum made international headlines in 2015 when it cancelled an exhibition of works by Hermann Nitsch, a decision widely denounced as censorship. For its tenth anniversary in 2024, Museo Jumex presented a retrospective of Damien Hirst, the first major institutional revision of the artist's work in Latin America. Chief curators have included Patricia Martín (1997-2005), Patrick Charpenel (2005-2015), Julieta González (2015-2020), and Kit Hammonds (2020, present). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum abolished its entrance fee and made all offerings free. A 2023 retrospective of Jannis Kounellis drew more than 250,000 visitors.

The collection comprises approximately 2,800 works spanning major figures in international and Mexican contemporary art. It is distinguished by its global scope combined with attention to artists connected to Mexico. Holdings include works by British artists such as Damien Hirst, Darren Almond, Tacita Dean, and Martin Creed; American artists including Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Jeff Koons, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Richard Prince, Donald Judd, and Nancy Rubins; German artists such as Andreas Gursky, Martin Kippenberger, and Stefan Brüggemann; and conceptual art pioneers like Marcel Duchamp. The collection also emphasizes Mexican and Mexico-based artists, notably Gabriel Orozco, Francis Alÿs, and Gabriel Kuri, as well as Latin American artists such as Gego. Other significant names include Olafur Eliasson, Urs Fischer, Carl Hopgood, David Ostrowski, Nan Goldin, Thomas Ruff, Louise Lawler, Thomas Demand, Tatiana Trouvé, Claude Closky, Carl Andre, John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Roni Horn, Roy Lichtenstein, and Santiago Sierra. The foundation supports the collection's mission through two complementary programs: Fomento, dedicated to supporting contemporary art production and independent projects; and Educación, focused on improving visitors' ability to understand and appreciate contemporary art. Additionally, the foundation maintains a scholarship program for Mexican students pursuing graduate studies in contemporary arts and offers grants for artists and organizations dedicated to the production, research, and promotion of contemporary art nationally and internationally.

Among the collection's signature works are pieces by Damien Hirst, whose 2024 retrospective marked a milestone as the first major institutional survey of his work in Latin America. The collection holds significant works by Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, representatives of American Pop art and its aftermath. Conceptual and minimalist traditions are represented through works by Marcel Duchamp, Donald Judd, and Cy Twombly. The collection also includes site-specific and installation-based works, such as a marble floor installation by British artist Martin Creed in the museum's basement gallery. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco is prominently featured, with a major museum exhibition of his work, Politécnico Nacional, curated by Briony Fer and opened in February 2025, comprising approximately 300 works spanning his career. Other notable exhibition histories drawn from the collection have included presentations of works by James Turrell, John Cage, John Baldessari, Alexander Calder, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Pedro Reyes, Danh Vo, Rirkrit Tirivanija, Matthew Barney's Cremaster cycle, General Idea, and Ulises Carrión.

Museo Jumex occupies a building designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning firm, and represents Chipperfield's first architectural work in Latin America. The building is located in the mixed-use development Plaza Carso in the Polanco neighborhood, directly across from Museo Soumaya, which was created by Carlos Slim Helú, who sold the land for Museo Jumex to Eugenio López Alonso. The structure features a distinctive sawtooth roof form and was conceived to respond to its surroundings and local context through the incorporation of domestically sourced materials. The building contains 1,600 square meters (17,000 square feet) of exhibition space distributed across five levels. The ground floor houses art storage, mechanical rooms, administrative offices, a multipurpose hall, ticket office, bookstore, cafeteria, and public plaza. Levels 1, 2, and 3 function as exhibition galleries, with the top floor gallery optimized for natural daylight through its sawtooth roof. An open multifunctional lobby on level 1 allows visitors to engage with the urban streetscape and can operate as a forum for activities, meeting area, and rest space. The basement also serves as an exhibition gallery. The eclectic neighboring buildings, including Museo Soumaya and Teatro Cervantes, contributed to an architectural context without a coherent aesthetic, which Chipperfield used as an opportunity to create a distinct, independent architectural statement. The design team included project architect Peter Jurschitzka and collaborators TAAU / Oscar Rodríguez, with structural engineering by Arup / Alonso y Asociados and service engineering by Arup / Iacsa.