TL;DR
Álvaro Urbano’s exhibition ‘Helen’ at Museo Jumex draws on Helen Fowler O’Gorman’s 1961 illustrated book of native plants, made while she lived at Casa Cueva in Mexico City. Painted metal sculptures and a site-specific floor installation reference the house and its gardens; the exhibition is scheduled to remain open through February 7.
Álvaro Urbano’s ‘Helen’, now on view at Museo Jumex, translates botanical illustrations by Helen Fowler O’Gorman into painted metal sculptures, linking the plants to Casa Cueva, the Mexico City home she shared with architect Juan O’Gorman. The exhibition revisits the house’s garden and Fowler O’Gorman’s work documenting regional plants, while drawing attention to a landmark residence that was largely destroyed after it was sold.
Urbano’s sculptures are based on specimens featured in Fowler O’Gorman’s 1961 book, Mexican Flowering Trees and Plants. She wrote and illustrated the volume while living at Casa Cueva, documenting native plants of the region. The exhibition uses those published images as the foundation for a new body of metal works, painted to represent plants and suspended in an arrangement across the gallery.
In the installation, the sculptures hang against a translucent curtain, appearing to hover as visitors move through the space. A separate, site-specific intervention exposes variegated stone beneath square floor pavers. The report describes these elements as creating a dialogue among the plants, the gallery and its visitors, though it does not give technical details about the floor work or the individual sculptures.
The exhibition is titled Helen and is presented as a solo show by Urbano. The source says it remains on view through February 7, but does not identify the year attached to that date. Installation photographs are credited to Ramiro Chávez; studio images and a portrait of Urbano are credited to Agustín Farías.
A Botanical Record Reframed as Art
‘Helen’ brings a little-known part of Casa Cueva’s history into a museum setting: Fowler O’Gorman’s botanical research and illustration. By building sculptures from images in her book, Urbano connects her work as an artist and documentarian with the house and garden where she made it. The exhibition therefore concerns both the plants represented and the people whose creative work shaped the site.
The project also makes the house’s loss part of its present-day meaning. Casa Cueva was largely destroyed after its sale in 1969, according to the source report. The surviving reference point in this account is not the building itself, but the book and the cultural memory attached to it. Urbano’s installation gives museum visitors a way to encounter that history through reconstructed botanical forms, rather than presenting the sculptures as a literal recreation of the residence.
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Casa Cueva and Fowler O’Gorman’s Book
Casa Cueva stood in the Pedregal de San Ángel area of Mexico City, within a natural lava cave. Architect Juan O’Gorman and artist Helen Fowler O’Gorman designed the mosaic-covered home in 1954. The couple sold it in 1969, after which much of the property was destroyed. The source does not provide further details about the sale, the demolition or what remains at the site.
Fowler O’Gorman’s Mexican Flowering Trees and Plants, published in 1961, documented regional native specimens through text and illustration. Urbano’s exhibition takes this book as its direct botanical reference. This gives the show a specific historical link to Casa Cueva: it draws not simply on the house’s architecture, but on an illustrated record created by one of its residents while she lived there.
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Details Still Missing From the Report
The available source does not state the exhibition’s opening date, the year of its February 7 closing date, or whether the museum has announced related public programs. It also provides no count of the sculptures, names of the specific plant species represented, or further explanation of how the stone beneath the pavers relates to Casa Cueva. Those details should not be inferred from the installation description.
The report presents the work as a tribute to the house’s innovations and Fowler O’Gorman’s legacy. That is its characterization of Urbano’s project; the supplied material does not include a direct statement from the artist, the museum, or Fowler O’Gorman’s family explaining the intention in their own words.
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Exhibition Runs Through February 7
‘Helen’ is listed as on view at Museo Jumex through February 7. Because the source does not specify the year for that date, visitors should check the museum’s current exhibition information before planning a visit. No further exhibition dates, touring plans or upcoming announcements are included in the report.
modern metal plant hanging sculptures
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Key Questions
What is Álvaro Urbano’s ‘Helen’?
It is a solo exhibition at Museo Jumex featuring painted metal plant sculptures based on botanical illustrations by Helen Fowler O’Gorman, alongside a site-specific floor installation.
Who was Helen Fowler O’Gorman?
She was an artist who lived at Casa Cueva with architect Juan O’Gorman and wrote and illustrated the 1961 book Mexican Flowering Trees and Plants. Urbano uses specimens depicted in that book as the basis for the sculptures in ‘Helen’.
What happened to Casa Cueva?
The house, designed by Juan and Helen O’Gorman in 1954 in Mexico City’s Pedregal de San Ángel area, was sold in 1969. The source report says much of it was destroyed afterward; it does not detail what remains.
How long is the exhibition open?
The report lists the exhibition as on view through February 7, but does not specify the year. Check Museo Jumex’s current listings for the applicable closing date.
Source: rss
