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Museo Sala De Arte Público David Alfaro Siqueiros
One of the Big Three of Mexican muralism along with Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros is recalled as much for his fiercely radical political views as for his larger-than-life paintings. An avowed anarchist, he notoriously organized an (unsuccessful) assassination attempt on the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.
Read more about Museo Sala De Arte Público David Alfaro Siqueiros
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Museo Soumaya
Property of multibillionaire businessman Carlos Slim and named after his late wife, the Soumaya museum houses one of the world's three major collections - 70 pieces - of the sculpture of Frenchman Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Located inside the Plaza Loreto shopping mall, it also possesses work by Rodin's contemporaries Degas, Matisse, Renoir and Daumier, collections of Mexican portraiture and colonial art, and murals by Rufino Tamayo, besides staging major temporary exhibitions.
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Museo Universitario De Ciencias Y Artes
Hosts eclectic, often polemical, exhibitions from the university collection.
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Omr
Housed in a grand Art Nouveau gem of a building with soaring ceilings, OMR adds its own slant to contemporary with a floor that tilts to one side, the result of settling soil (Roma is built on a dry lake bed). The gallery holds six to eight exhibitions per year and represents a broad spectrum of the most prominent painters, sculptors and photographers on both the Mexican and international art scene, like Mauricio Alejo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, José Leon Cerrillo and Spanish artist Félix Curto.
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Palacio De Bellas Artes
The splendid white-marble Palace of Fine Arts, a concert hall and arts center commissioned by President Porfirio Díaz. Construction began in 1905 under Italian architect Adamo Boari, who favored neoclassical and art nouveau styles. The project became more complicated than anticipated as the heavy marble shell sank into the spongy subsoil, and then the Revolution intervened. Work was halted and Boari returned to Italy. Architect Federico Mariscal eventually finished the interior in the 1930s, using the more modern art deco style.
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Palacio De Minería
Opposite the national art museum is the Palace of Mining, where mining engineers were trained in the 19th century. Today it houses a branch of the national university's engineering department. A neoclassical masterpiece, the palace was designed by Tolsá and built between 1797 and 1813. Visits are by guided tour only. There's a small museum (admission around $10 ; h - Wed-Sun) on the illustrious architect's life and work.
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Papalote Museo Del Niño
At this innovative, hands-on museum, kids can put together a radio program, lie on a bed of nails, join an archaeological dig and try out all manner of technological gadget games. Everything is attended by child-friendly supervisors. The museum also features a 3D IMAX movie theater.
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Probert
A quality gallery specializing in contemporary works by Mexican and Latin American artists, plus paintings by several European and American artists now resident in Mexico. The latter include respected Dublin-born artist Phil Kelly, who has lived here since 1989 and paints evocative landscapes. Also here to tempt you is a selection of exquisite and unusual glass and ceramic beaded jewelry.
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Unidad Bibliográfica
Houses part of Mexico's National Library; it's about 200m north of the Centro Cultural. A short distance east of the library is the university sculpture garden, with a trail leading through volcanic fields past a dozen or so innovative pieces. The most formidable work, by sculptor Mathias Goeritz, is found just north of the cultural complex: an enormous ring of concrete blocks surround an exposed section of the lava bed upon which the university was built.
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