Now famous for its lavish parties, celebrity sightings and deep-pocketed collectors, Art Basel Miami has evolved into a full-blown cultural phenomenon. But when entrepreneur and art expert Alejandra Martinez attended the inaugural event in the early aughts, it was half the size and still mostly about the art.
For Martinez, the experience was visceral. “My head exploded,” she says while reminiscing about her first visit to the event. She was a student from Mexico at the University of Miami, and she realized that working in the art world would allow her to merge her education with her passions. “While exploring Art Basel, I thought, ‘I want to learn how to play in this game, in this world. What is it all about?’ It just grabbed my soul and hit me like a huge dopamine rush.” Years and many creative projects later, she’s still on a high.
Martinez’s priority — to collaborate with and uplift her community — hasn’t changed. By age 30, she had founded a small editorial shop, Collectivo Taller Mexico, which made custom books and publications for businesses and cultural and government institutions. She also launched ArteCareyes, an art, film and music festival that brought a vibrant weekend of culture to the Pacific Coast of Mexico. “I just kind of invited artists and creators that I knew, and we were all just kind of inventing it together as we were going. None of the big festivals were happening yet, so it was very special for us,” she says. But it wasn’t just a good time. The knowledge Martinez soaked up from her new community of creatives sparked a game-changing idea.
In 2015, Martinez took note of the barriers that kept new patrons and emerging artists from penetrating the art world — funding was a big one — and she decided she wanted to be part of the solution. To combat the industry’s preoccupation with big-name artists and an overly investment-oriented approach to collecting, Martinez founded Anónimo. The visionary nonprofit introduced anonymous auctions that challenged buyers to rethink the value of art and their connection to it. It also created an atmosphere that was more hospitable to new collectors. “It was hard for people that weren’t in the art world to feel safe in it because it’s so intellectual and there are so many rules and [hierarchies]. It can be very intimidating for first-timers,” Martinez says.
Her auctions hid the identities of the artists and offered a single starting price for all pieces. “It was just about your connection to the piece. You don’t need to know what stage the artist is in their career, who represents them or what the market value is. It was super-democratic,” she explains.
At first, Anónimo featured Mexican artists. Later, it expanded into Latin America. After seven editions in hubs ― such as Miami; Marfa, Texas; and Oaxaca, Mexico ― the pandemic led Martinez to transform the platform into Anónimo Collectivo, a creative cultural agency, that she says “collaborates with brands that want to come into the art world, partner with institutions or create arts programs.”
In 2021, Martinez signed on to be the creative director of Maestro Dobel Tequila’s Artpothecary, and she has partnered with the brand to to curate an annual display at the Design Miami Art Fair. The in-person showcase for Mexico-based artists gives attendees a taste of the culture, contemporary art and hospitality the country has to offer. It’s a fitting role for a woman who’s spent years creating ways for Mexican, Latin American and Latine artists to thrive.
“When I ran the auction series, that was a lot of fun, and I loved it. But corporate support helps to create a world stage for these artists that my organization didn’t really have the means to offer,” says Martinez.
Today she gets to shine the spotlight on talent that might otherwise fly under the radar. For this year’s Maestro Dobel Artpothecary, called “Oaxaca: A Lens on Tradition and Innovation,” Martinez collaborated with two Oaxacan artists, Marissa Naval of NAVAL Arquitectura and Javier Reyes of rrres Studio, to bring the theme to life. The pieces pay homage to the region, which Martinez says is “the epicenter of so much of our flavors, colors and textures.”
The installation featured live discussions, tequila cocktails, striking tapestries, palm weaving, furniture, pottery and impressive woodwork, all showcasing Oaxaca’s craftsmanship and traditions. Martinez says that partnerships like this provide a “more substantial way of creating bridges and make it so much easier for artists to successfully cross over” into the larger and more lucrative U.S. market.
Martinez has also lent her art world expertise to Maestro Dobel to raise the profile of artists outside of Mexico. Earlier this year, she served on the jury committee for the first Maestro Dobel Latinx Art Prize, which was awarded in September. The prize grants $50,000 and a showcase at El Museo del Barrio in New York City to one Latine artist every other year (the 2023 winner, Carlos Martiel, hails from Cuba).
Even in one conversation with Martinez, it’s evident how much pride she has in her work, the artists she meets and her Mexican roots.
“The thing that I love most about our culture is that it is very warm and it welcomes everyone,” Martinez says. As she infuses that culture into the art world, it’s creating a more welcoming approach there, too.
