The Federal highway 43 joins the states of Guanajuato and Michoacán. Its transit takes place over a complex geography, crossed by a volcanic axis and dotted by the most profitable agricultural land in the country. On top of this natural landscape, another historically constructed landscape unfolds including important urban centers of the ancient cultures of the West, traces and colonial architecture and ambitious industrial modernization projects with national impact. This highly urbanized territory is crossed by rail, road and infrastructure networks - from ports to gas pipelines - through which enormous amounts of goods and material and natural resources circulate. All this has constituted a complex social landscape that seems to match the character of its geography.  

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Carretera Federal 43 brings together the work of three artists from this region of the Center-West of the country: Marco López Valenzuela, Ariadna Cosa Rapozo and Salvador Xharicata. His works, situated in a specific context, offer different perspectives and perceptions on complex phenomena present in the region but which, obviously, are not limited solely to this geography. Following the program of La Nao, several of the works presented in this exhibition investigate the pictorial and what can be understood as painting in different ways.  

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Daniel Garza Usabiaga