Mexican Modernism Brings Bold Color to the New York Botanical Garden’s Beloved ‘Orchid Show’

This may be the snowiest winter New York has seen in years, but the New York Botanical Garden is offering a tropical escape with “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism.” The show has transformed the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a colorful, almost magical paradise inspired by the bold architecture of Luis Barragán (1902–1988).

The NYBG horticulture team has planted a profusion of the striking flowering plants amid an installation of trickling water features and textured walls painted hot pink, rich purple, fiery orange, and deep red—the trademarks of Barragán, Mexico’s most famous Modernist architect.

“The set pieces were inspired by the vibrant colors and beautiful architecture that are seen throughout Mexico,” Kenia Pittman, the NYBG’s director of exhibitions design and operations, told me at the exhibition preview. “We really wanted to capture his layering of geometry and the casting of light and shadows.”

It was her team who oversaw the design, construction, and installation of the architectural elements of the presentation, and their interaction with the orchids and other plants, looking to the way that Barragán himself tried to incorporate outdoor spaces into his buildings. The goal was to create a tranquil respite, with moments for peaceful reflection amid the lush vegetation, despite the crowds that the exhibition inevitably draws.

“We are extremely excited for visitors to come and see this show,” Pittman, who grew up in Mexico, added. “I think that it does a beautiful job in executing the vibrant culture of Mexico, in addition to giving visitors the opportunity, as we always do, to learn about plants, and the native orchids that exist in Mexico.”

The show has been in the planning for about a year, when the NYBG horticulture team dreamed up the theme for the exhibition’s 22nd edition. Past outings have drawn on the gardens of Singapore (2019), Thailand (2017), Cuba (2010), and even Brazilian Modernism and the work of artist Roberto Burle Marx (2009).

For this year’s edition, the NYBG is also presenting a photography exhibition from Mexican artist Martirene Alcántara, who for decades has been captivated by Barragán’s architecture. Her photographs of his Mexico City home, Casa Barragán, are on view in the downstairs gallery space at the garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library. (The show was organized by the Consulate General of Mexico in New York and will appear there later this year.)

The artist, who has lived in New York for 25 years, began taking architectural photographs while studying architecture at the National University of Mexico. Soon, it became her primary focus, with Casa Barragán becoming a beloved subject.

“I have pretty much lived there for 30 years or more,” Alcántara told me. “I love that house, and every time I go, it’s like discovering a new house. Just a beautiful place.”

Her photographs isolate the architecture into its basic geometry, translating Barragán’s simple, elegant lines and angles into almost abstract compositions. (Four works from her series “Homage to Luis Barragán” are in the collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art.) The stripped-down, minimal nature of Alcántara’s work stands in striking contrast to the maximalist approach inside the glass-walled conservatory.

The new show delivers on the “explosion of orchids that you have come to expect from this annual tradition,” Jennifer Bernstein, the garden’s president, said, but with the added bonus of other Mexican flora.

That includes agave, cacti, and the pink bougainvillea—the color which is echoed in some of the wall installations—as well as some of the country’s approximately 1,300 native orchids, 40 percent of which don’t grow anywhere else on earth. But other varieties of the beloved flower can be found almost everywhere, which has allowed the NYBG to stage such a wide variety of themes for the annual showcase.

“There’s over 30,000 species of orchid, native to every continent and every biome except Antarctica,” Zack Leibovitch, the conservatory manager, told me. “You can even find orchids growing wild just a couple of miles from the city.”

The garden’s horticulture team, led by Brian P. Sullivan, vice president for glasshouses and landscape, and Marc Hachadourian, director of glasshouse horticulture and senior curator of orchids, grows many of the specialty orchids in the show on site. But these days, thanks to advances in tissue culture, the garden is able to purchase most of the plants from nurseries.

“They take a small portion of cells and grow them in a Petri dish,” Leibovitch explained. “They will be a complete clone of the parent that the cells were taken from.”

It’s much faster and less expensive than growing plants from seed or by dividing adult plants, although there are some species, like the showy slipper orchids, that don’t respond well to this method.

The show features thousands upon thousands of orchids, in a full rainbow of colors, with both tiny flowers and massive blooms. (After the show’s run, many of them get donated to the local community, such as senior centers, through the garden’s Bronx Green-Up program.)

It’s a feast for the eyes—and for the nose, with the blossoms’ fragrant scents permeating the space. (The show’s run also features seven after-hours “Orchid Nights” with adult beverages and dance parties.) As New Yorkers eagerly await warmer weather and spring sunshine, soaking up the Mexican vibes is the perfect antidote to the winter blues.

Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com