Garros Galería

Garros Galería, also known as Garros Gallery, is an art gallery and museum located in Colonia Roma, Mexico City. Founded in 2006, it holds the distinction of being the only art gallery and museum in Mexico dedicated to cats. The venue occupies a unique position in the country's cultural landscape, combining commercial gallery functions with museum-style curation around a single, highly specialized theme. Its location in Colonia Roma places it within one of Mexico City's most vibrant neighborhoods for contemporary art, galleries, boutiques, and specialty retail.

The gallery was established in 2006 by siblings Joel and María del Carmen Nava Polina, together with Rodrigo Moreno González. The founders recognized that while cat museums existed in the United States, Canada, and the Bahamas, no comparable institution existed in Mexico. The Nava Polina siblings came from a family of cat lovers and maintained fifteen cats between them, having accumulated a substantial personal collection of cat-related items over the years. The gallery launched by recruiting artists and friends to donate works or place them on consignment. This model proved successful because it addressed an unserved niche market. Since its opening, the gallery has received media attention through appearances on television programs including TV Azteca and Once TV. The enterprise has also developed an international customer base, with sales to Europe conducted through the Internet.

The gallery's holdings center on original art and handcrafts with cat themes, with the stated aims of supporting artists and artisans from Mexico and abroad while promoting cats on aesthetic grounds. The operation works with over one hundred designers, artists, and artisans to produce its product line. The catalog encompasses more than 5,000 pieces spanning multiple categories: handcrafts, pillows, paintings, T-shirts, jewelry, cups, toys, photographs, watches, and books. Pricing is accessible across a wide range, from twenty pesos for a lollipop and forty-five pesos for earrings to over 8,000 pesos for an oil painting. The gallery emphasizes that all merchandise consists of original work unavailable elsewhere, explicitly avoiding knockoffs or illegal copies of commercial products.

Among the gallery's signature pieces is the Gato Sombra, a painting of a cat formerly owned by artist Odette Paz that died. The painting occupies its own niche within the gallery, where it is claimed by the artist and others to grant favors to petitioners who believe in its powers. Visitors write small notes to leave with the image, and the gallery sells small reproductions accompanied by a prayer. The gallery's visual identity is anchored by its logo, El gato Dedrita (Dedrita the cat), designed by Joel Nava Polina to represent the playful character of cats and their admirers. The roster of creators who have worked with the gallery includes Daniel Soler, Serioshka Hellmund, Roxana Elvridge-Thomas, Ricardo Ham, Karina Falcón, Iris México, Miguel Ángel Tenorio, Guillermo León, James Tomon, and Ana Karen Allende.

The gallery is situated in Colonia Roma, a neighborhood characterized by a high concentration of galleries, boutiques, and specialty stores. The venue contains a room dedicated to temporary art exhibits, which need not be related to cats. This exhibition program specializes in work by emerging artists, with particular attention to members of the Japanese community in Mexico City. Artists shown in this context have included Jesús Topete, Fumiko Nakashima, Kodai Kita, and Satoji Matoba. The gallery's coordinates are approximately 19.4174°N, 99.1604°W. Nearby landmarks include Avenida Álvaro Obregón, Casa Lamm, and Galería OMR, all within a few minutes' walk.

Garros Galería operates as a commercial gallery with public access in Colonia Roma, Mexico City. Its customer base includes cat enthusiasts, friends and family of cat owners, curious passersby, and tourists. The gallery maintains an online presence at www.garrosccr.com. For visitors using public transportation, the nearest metro stations are Insurgentes (Line 1, approximately twelve minutes' walk) and Hospital General (Line 3, approximately fourteen minutes' walk). Bus stops at Monterrey and Insurgentes are roughly seven minutes away on foot. The gallery continues to function as both a retail operation and an exhibition venue, maintaining its dual role as Mexico's only cat-dedicated art institution and a broader promoter of local and international artists.