Building dialogues

A conversation with Georgina Pounds on founding a gallery, curating across generations, and building an international program.

Interview by Emilio Esquivel
Photos by Sayana Cairo

Georgina Pounds Gallery has accomplished a great deal in just a few months, from exhibitions and artist residencies to international projects. Looking back at this first chapter, what was the founding vision behind the gallery, and what did you feel was missing from the existing landscape that you wanted to create?

Thank you, that’s very kind. The gallery grew from a desire to build a programme led by ideas rather than market demands. I wanted to create exhibitions that were intellectually rigorous while remaining emotionally engaging, with each exhibition responding closely to its architecture and context.

Although the gallery has only just begun, we have already participated in two international art fairs. Looking ahead, I’m particularly excited by our off-site and institutional projects, including Peter Halley’s first presentation at Casa Gilardi.

One of the gallery’s defining characteristics is the way it places historical and contemporary artists in conversation. What draws you to these cross-generational dialogues, and what kinds of connections are you hoping visitors discover between the works?

The conversations that excite me are those where artists who may be separated by decades unexpectedly arrive at similar questions or concerns.

Living in Mexico City has made me aware that many artists who arrived in the 1940s walked the same neighbourhoods, visited the same markets, and spent time in places such as San Ángel Inn. I enjoy imagining the conversations that continue across generations.

Themes such as memory, mythology, architecture, landscape, or the subconscious continue to evolve across time, and those unexpected connections often reveal something new about both artists.

Your presentation at CAN Art Fair brought together artists working across different generations, geographies, and mediums. When developing a presentation like this, do you begin with the artists themselves, the relationships between the works, or a broader curatorial idea?

Usually, it begins with noticing a conversation emerging between works or artists, and from there a broader framework develops naturally.

The process is intuitive but also research-driven, and often the strongest presentations are those where unexpected relationships emerge during installation itself.

For CAN Art Fair, the dialogue gradually centred on geology, volcanic material, ceramics, shells, and the sea. Rather than imposing a theme, it emerged naturally from the relationships between the artists and their works.

We introduced a few new artists into the programme, including Rafaela de Ascanio’s ceramics and Olivia Bryant’s paintings.

A gallery today often does much more than represent artists—it can shape discourse, build communities, and create opportunities for new forms of collaboration. How do you define the role of Georgina Pounds Gallery within that broader ecosystem?

Representation means that artists are supported by us and that they are the first to be recognised for opportunities to develop ambitious projects, build institutional connections, undertake residencies, and engage with audiences internationally.

We want to help as many artists as possible, so representation is usually about both artists who fit with the gallery programme and artists who we feel are well received.

I also believe galleries have a responsibility to contribute to broader cultural conversations. That means collaborating with museums, foundations, collectors, writers, and curators, and creating exhibitions that encourage people to spend time with one another.

Sometimes an introduction can be as valuable as a long-term partnership. In summary, we hope to support as many artists as possible within this ecosystem.

Although the gallery is still in its first year, it has already developed an international presence through fairs, residencies, and collaborations in Europe. Was that international outlook always part of the vision, or did it emerge naturally as the programme evolved?

The international outlook was always part of the vision. I’ve worked across different countries throughout my career, and those experiences shaped how I think about building a gallery.

Artists today naturally exist within international networks, and I wanted the programme to reflect that from the outset.

At the same time, it has evolved organically through relationships. Many of the collaborations we have developed have grown from conversations with artists, curators, and institutions, which makes them feel genuine rather than strategic.

Many international conversations around Mexican art still tend to revolve around identity or geography. Through the artists you represent and the exhibitions you organise, what narratives are you most interested in contributing to those conversations?

While place inevitably plays a role, the artists I work with engage with questions that are fundamentally universal: memory, materiality, mythology, architecture, ecology, emotion, and the relationship between humans and the natural world.

The gallery naturally began by responding to Mexico because that is where my ideas have developed over the past decade. I’m sure the programme will evolve beyond that, but I don’t want to define its future too rigidly.

One of the most valuable things Mexico has taught me is to leave space for unexpected collaborations and ideas to emerge. I hope the programme contributes to a broader understanding of Mexican contemporary art as part of an international dialogue, but I’m also excited to expand beyond this.

It makes total sense as a starting point, but galleries don’t have to be defined by their initial ideas. I’m excited to see where the natural process leads. I actually don’t know yet. Maybe that’s very Mexican in itself, and letting go of controlling the future is something I’ve learned over the past decade. Collaboration too, that’s important.

As you look ahead, what do you hope will define Georgina Pounds Gallery—not simply as a gallery, but as a platform for artists, ideas, and cultural exchange?

I hope the gallery becomes known for exhibitions that couldn’t exist anywhere else: projects that respond to architecture.

If people leave having discovered an unexpected connection, beauty in an artwork, or having spent more time looking than they expected, then I think we’ve succeeded.