Museo Jumex houses what is widely considered the most important private contemporary art collection in Latin America, displayed in a building designed by David Chipperfield that manages to be both striking and restrained — which is harder than it sounds. The museum sits in Nuevo Polanco, next to the Museo Soumaya, and together they form a cultural power couple that has turned this formerly industrial zone into one of the city’s most visited neighborhoods. Best of all, admission is free.
The Collection
The Jumex collection was assembled by Eugenio Lopez Alonso, heir to the Jumex juice company fortune. Starting in the 1990s, Lopez built a collection of over 3,000 works that reads like a who’s who of contemporary art: Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Gabriel Orozco, Francis Alys, Carlos Amorales, and dozens of other names that anyone following contemporary art would recognize.
The collection’s strength is its depth in both international and Latin American contemporary art. While many private collections skew heavily toward American and European names, Jumex gives significant space to Mexican and Latin American artists, creating a dialogue between local and global practices that most museums in the region can’t match.
Not all 3,000 works are on display at once — the museum rotates pieces through thematic and solo exhibitions that change several times a year. This means repeat visits yield different experiences. What you’ll see on any given day depends on the current programming, but the standard is consistently high.
The Building
David Chipperfield’s design is a sawtooth-roofed structure that references the industrial buildings that used to dominate this part of the city. It’s clad in travertine marble, with the zigzag roofline providing natural light through north-facing clerestory windows. Inside, the galleries are clean, well-proportioned spaces that let the art do the talking — no architectural showboating competing with the work on display.
The building has five floors, including a rooftop terrace that offers views of the surrounding area and the silver blob of the Soumaya building next door. The ground floor usually houses the shop and temporary installations, with the main exhibition spaces on the upper floors.
For architecture enthusiasts, the building is worth visiting on its own merits. Chipperfield is one of the most respected architects working today, and this is his only building in Mexico. The way it handles light, proportion, and material is masterful without being showy.
Exhibitions
The museum’s exhibition program is ambitious. Shows range from focused solo presentations of major international artists to thematic group exhibitions that draw on the permanent collection and loans from other institutions. Recent years have seen exhibitions that tackle challenging subjects — migration, identity, political violence, environmental crisis — without descending into the preachy earnestness that can plague contemporary art institutions.
The curatorial team is strong, and the wall texts and exhibition guides are helpful without being condescending. If you don’t have a background in contemporary art, the museum does a decent job of making the work accessible without dumbing it down.
Practical Information
Museo Jumex is at Boulevard Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 303, in the Plaza Carso development in Nuevo Polanco. It’s next to the Soumaya Museum and the Telcel Theater. The nearest metro is San Joaquin (Line 7) or Polanco (Line 7), each about a 15-minute walk. Taxis and rideshares from central areas take 20 to 30 minutes.
Admission is free. The museum is closed on Mondays. Hours are typically 10 AM to 5 PM on weekdays and 10 AM to 7 PM on weekends. Check the website for current exhibitions and any special events.
The museum has a gift shop that’s better curated than average, and there are restaurants and cafes in the surrounding Plaza Carso area. Combining Jumex with a visit to the adjacent Soumaya makes for a full morning or afternoon of art, with two radically different approaches to collecting and displaying it.
Jumex vs. Soumaya
The two museums next to each other present an interesting contrast. Soumaya (Carlos Slim’s collection) is encyclopedic and sprawling, with everything from Rodin sculptures to colonial-era art crammed into Fer Romero’s silver-skinned building. Jumex is focused, contemporary, and curated with a precision that Soumaya doesn’t attempt. Most art-minded visitors prefer Jumex; most general visitors find Soumaya more immediately impressive. We’d recommend both, but if you can only do one and you care about contemporary art, Jumex is the clear choice.
For a city already rich in shopping and culture, Museo Jumex represents something relatively new: a world-class contemporary art institution that can stand alongside any equivalent in New York, London, or Basel. That it’s free makes it one of the best deals in Mexico City.