Colorful Contradictions Exhibit of Contemporary Mexican Art Reflects Tensions by Gary Tischler The modern, traditional, serenely abstract and hauntingly surrealóeach type of artwork makes its presence known in the downstairs and fourth-floor galleries of the Mexican Cultural Institute. The occasion is the instituteís ìPermanent Collection of Mexican Contemporary Art,î a generous portion of artwork that seems to serve at least two functions. The exhibition is a panoramic, diverse, electric tour through, more or less, contemporary Mexican art, much of it dating from the 1980s. It transforms whatever clichÈ expectations you may have about Mexican art as an echo of Diego Rivera muralist techniques or intense Frida Kahlo-esque introspective styles. In turn, the artwork is also a reflection of the tensions and pleasing contradictions of the Mexican Cultural Institute building, which dates back to 1921 and formerly housed the Embassy of Mexico. The building is a mixture of grace and grandeur that features a three-story mural, a grand hall that is exotic, beautifully lit and also old-world in style and fashion, and rooms made of deep brown wood and airy, Alhambra touches where the state s of Mexico are depicted as contrasting spirits. The interior seems a mix of culturally rich Mexican flavors and American gilded-age aspirations. So it should not come as a surprise that the permanent collection of Mexican art also displays certain tensions and contradictions that actually complement each other. The traditional aspects of Mexican art are present in the sense that some of the works are, if not heavily influenced, certainly flavored by a certain primitivism and muralist subject matters. But the contradictions also speak to Mexicoís very own melting pot, where different racial and ethnic groups clash, share and impact one another. Thus, you have the brightly colored works of Joy Laville, a transplanted New Englander whose almost childlike pieces are splashed through both floors of the exhibition like confetti. You also have Luis Nishizawa, represented in the exhibit by various stark landscapes, not to mention Pablo OíHiggins, once an assistant to Diego Rivera who had the honor, as a native Californian, to be the only non-native Mexican artist included in the 1940 exhibition ìTwenty Centuries of Mexican Art.î This collection highlights more than 130 works, including paintings, sculptures and photographs by contemporary Mexican artists. It operates like a big circus tent: Thereís room for all sorts of styles, subjects, dreams, gifts and obsessions. For example, witness the magical realism of Gustave Montoya and his haunting works on chess, Arturo Riveraís figures, invaded and enveloped by lobsters and snakes, or the abstract work of AnÌbal Delgado, which looks like the scattered remnants of a vacuum cleaner. The downstairs gallery works tend to be more recognizably representational and surreal, while abstract works dominate the upstairs gallery. Some pieces, such as those of Hector Ayala, have an almost science-fiction quality to them, while Alejandro Colunga, described in Mexico as a trickster artist, draws on magic as his subject. Many of the works date from the 1980s, but they carry more universal undertones, representing common themes and traditions in Mexican art and echoing the artistic memories of a nationís past. The ìPermanent Collection of Mexican Contemporary Artî runs through Aug. 29 at the Mexican Cultural Institute, 2829 16th St., NW. For more information, please call (202) 232-8674. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.