MUAC: Three Shows Open, and the One That Closed 30 August

Events & Exhibitions · Mexico City

MUAC is the UNAM's contemporary art museum, and it programmes like a university rather than a gallery — research-led, archive-heavy, and often the most serious room in the city. Three shows are open. A fourth closed on 30 August.

By Josh Stein · Founder, Art of NOMA, Mexico City · writing on the emerging-art market since 2023

Three shows open, one just closed

MUAC belongs to the university, and that changes what it puts on. It has an archive space with its own programme, a room built for sound, and a willingness to spend seven months on a show about artist collectives that most commercial institutions would not give a season to.

Los grupos: the one that closed

Los grupos y otras revueltas artísticas occupied Salas 4 through 8 — five rooms, more than any other show in the building — from 7 February. It closed on 30 August.

Los grupos were the Mexican artist collectives of the 1970s, who worked collectively and often politically at a moment when the market wanted individual signatures. A show about them, staged at the university, across five rooms, for seven months, is an argument about what counts. 30 August was the last day to see it.

A museum with a sound room

The Espacio de Experimentación Sonora is a permanent room for sound work, which very few museums anywhere maintain. Tim Hecker is in it until 27 September 2026, which makes it the next of the three to close. If you have only seen his work as recordings, a room built for the purpose is a different proposition.

La historia de cómo sentarse runs in the Arkheia vestibule until 11 October, and Desde el umbral holds Salas 1 y 2 until 11 December — the one to catch if you are in the city late in the year.

Visiting

Ciudad Universitaria, in the south of Mexico City, on the UNAM campus. It is a long way from Polanco and it is a mistake to try to do both in a day. Pair it with Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil in San Ángel and the Anahuacalli, which are all in the same half of the city.

Sunday 30 August 2026 was a city-wide deadline. MUAC closed Los grupos, Museo Jumex closed two shows, and Museo Franz Mayer closed Fútbol: Diseñando una pasión. Four closings in one day.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• MUAC — Exposiciones — all four shows, dates and rooms, read 27 Aug 2026

All dates were read from the museum’s own exhibitions listing on 27 August 2026. Exhibition dates change; confirm with the venue before travelling.