The annual event celebrating art.
Slow Art Day is Saturday, April 11, 2026 Join Us!
Photo by Greg Neville
Myth, Symbolism and Reflection at PEANA in Mexico City
March 23rd, 2026For their first Slow Art Day – as part of the large 2025 citywide event in Mexico City, the contemporary gallery PEANA in Mexico City, Mexico hosted an immersive slow looking experience centered on “Their Silhouettes Bristled With Razors,” the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Mexican artist Naomi Rincón Gallardo.
Rincón Gallardo’s work explores themes of contemporary violence, decolonial thought, and ancient Mesoamerican narratives. The exhibition was presented in a dim, atmospheric environment that invited visitors to slow down and spend time contemplating the symbolic imagery and layered storytelling within the works.
The PEANA team welcomed visitors with a brief introduction and encouraged participants to approach the experience with openness and curiosity. Printed reflection prompts were distributed to guide the slow looking process, asking visitors questions about the symbolism they noticed, their first impressions of the artworks, and how their perceptions evolved as they spent more time observing.
The prompts also invited creative responses, encouraging participants to draw, write a poem, or describe their reactions after spending time with the artworks. This simple but powerful structure helped visitors move beyond quick viewing and into deeper engagement with the themes and emotional resonance of the exhibition.
Several works from the exhibition served as focal points for slow looking, including Mechatronic Butterfly, Eclipse I, and Me enterraron boca arriba con la lengua fuera (Tlaltecuhtli). These works combine sculptural elements, video, and mythological imagery to create powerful visual narratives rooted in Indigenous cosmologies and contemporary cultural critique.
By pairing immersive artworks with guided reflection prompts, PEANA created an environment where visitors could slow down, contemplate difficult themes, and engage with the artworks in a personal and meaningful way.
Approximately 60 visitors participated in PEANA’s Slow Art Day experience, making a wonderful contribution to Mexico City’s citywide celebration.
We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to the team at PEANA and to Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, who organized the 2025 citywide event. And we are amazed that Ontiveros Valdés has already organized more than 35 galleries and museums for Slow Art Day 2026. We can’t wait!
— Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. If you have not yet registered your museum of gallery for Slow Art Day 2026, please do.
50+ Venues for the Mexico City 2026 Citywide!
March 22nd, 2026Wow. Constanza Ontiveros Valdés — an art writer and cultural project leader – has done it again, but bigger and better.
For the second citywide Slow Art Day in Mexico City on April 11, 2026, Ontiveros Valdés has organized more than 50 museums, galleries, artist studios, and independent cultural spaces. She and her volunteer team have also created a website just for their citywide. Photos below are part of their impressive site.
Participating institutions include museums such as Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Museo Vivo del Muralismo and Museo Archivo de la Fotografía, as well as galleries, artist studios, and cultural spaces across the city. Each venue will organize its own program — ranging from guided slow-looking sessions and conversations to workshops and informal gatherings.
As noted, the Mexico City initiative continues to be led by Ontiveros Valdés. This year, she is supported by three enthusiastic and talented volunteers: Alejandra Sánchez Catalán, Shalom Hernández Espinosa, and Rebeca Rosales Reyes, whose collaboration has been key to the project’s expansion.
The initiative is further strengthened by the support of GAMA (Galerías de Arte Mexicanas Asociadas), a network of leading contemporary art galleries in Mexico, and by the cultural platform Artists’ Container, founded by curator and producer Gabriela Andrade Gorab, which fosters collaboration and visibility across artistic communities.
This is a remarkable initiative and is definitely one path for the future of Slow Art Day. We now have two committed citywide organizers – one in Illinois and now one in Mexico City. We hope that more emerge inspired by the success of the efforts of Ontiveros Valdés and her team.
With love and sequins,
Phyl, Ashley, Jessica Jane, Johanna, and Maggie (the Slow Art Day core volunteer team)
P.S. Below are the participating venues:
· ALDO ISLAS ESTUDIO
· ALEJANDRA TOPETE GALLERY
· ALMANAQUE
· AMPLIA GALERIA
· ARRÓNIZ ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO
· ARTE ABIERTO
· CAM GALERÍA
· CASA ENNEA
· ENCARTE
· ETHRA GALERÍA
· ESTUDIO LA DALIA
· ESTUDIO MARTE
· FIERA ARTE NO DOMESTICADO
· FUNDACION TTAMAYO
· GALERÍA ANDREA POZZO, IBERO
· GALERÍA CAMPECHE
· GALERIA CLAROSCURO
· GALERÍA HILARIO GALGUERA
· GALERIA KAREN HUBER
· GALERIA RGR
· KÖNIG GALERIE
· KURIMANZUTTO
· LAGO ALGO
· LE LABORATOIRE
· LUAN MUSEO EMOCIONAL
· LS GALERÍA
· MARIANE IBRAHIM GALLERY
· MISFIT ART ALLIANCE
· MUSEO ARCHIVO DE LA FOTOGRAFÍA
· MUSEO CASA DE CARRANZA
· MUSEO DEL PALACIO DE BELLAS ARTES
· MUSEO SOUMAYA
· MUSEO TAMAYO ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO
· MUSEO VIVO DEL MURALISMO
· OMR
· PATRICIA CONDE GALERÍA
· PEANA
· PLAYA ESCANDÓN
· PROYECTO PARALELO
· PROYECTO N.A.S.A.L
· SAENGER GALERÍA
· STUDIO MITOTE
· TALLER CRISTINA TORRES
· TERRENO BALDÍO
· THIRD BORN
· ART TRIGGERIA (HAAB PROJECT CONDESA)
· TINTA NARANJA GALERÍA
· YUNQUE FÁBRICA DE ARTE
· ZONA DE RIESGO
Ukraine’s National Museum of Decorative Arts Reflects on Memory, Community, and War
March 22nd, 2026For their first Slow Art Day, the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine hosted a deeply reflective session centered on memory, community and war via the series “Meals” by Ukrainian artist Olena Pryduvalova.
The featured works, “Beginning of the Buffet” and “Festive Dinner” (2019, acrylic on canvas), explore the emotional significance of gathering around food and shared meals. Pryduvalova originally created the Meals series while reading the book “Yes, but…” by Ukrainian writer Taras Prokhasko. Rather than illustrating the text directly, the artist used the reading experience as a catalyst for reflection, allowing the works to emerge from months of personal memories and contemplation.
According to Pryduvalova, the series explores what unites people and what remains in memory over time: moments of gathering, conversation, and shared meals that mark both joyful and difficult experiences. The ten paintings in the series depict a range of occasions, including weddings, buffets, festive dinners, memorial meals, and quiet conversations between two people.
The diptych shown for Slow Art Day captures two distinct moments within this theme. “Beginning of the Buffet” depicts a quiet scene before guests arrive, when the table is prepared and anticipation fills the air. In contrast, “Festive Dinner” celebrates the joy of coming together.
During the Slow Art Day session on April 5, museum visitors were invited to spend time carefully observing the works and then share their reflections. The discussion soon moved beyond the paintings themselves and into the personal experiences of participants.
Visitors spoke openly about how life in Ukraine has changed in recent years following the Russian invasion. The conversation turned to the meaning of family gatherings and how precious shared meals have become during the war. Participants reflected on how moments around a table—sometimes joyful, sometimes sorrowful—continue to bring people together and strengthen community.
Through these conversations, the artworks became a catalyst for dialogue about memory, resilience, and human connection.
We at Slow Art Day HQ are deeply grateful to the team at the National Museum of Decorative Arts of Ukraine for sharing this moving program and for demonstrating the power of art and slow looking even — and especially — during wartime.
We look forward to what they come up with for this year’s Slow Art Day, which is coming up on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
— Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
P.S. – Follow them on Facebook and Instagram
P.P.S. If you have not yet registered your museum of gallery for Slow Art Day 2026, please do.
Slow Looking and Slow Walking at Museo Universidad de Navarra in Spain
March 21st, 2026For their third Slow Art Day in 2025, the Museo Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain organized two free events — one for adults and another for children — both exploring different ways of slowing down with art.
Featured works included:
• “Incendi” by Antoni Tàpies
• Walking route map artwork by Hamish Fulton
First, nine adults gathered in front of the abstract painting “Incendi” (1991) by Antoni Tàpies for a slow looking session guided by a museum educator. Participants spent extended time contemplating the work before sharing their observations and reflections together in discussion.
The museum also hosted a Slow Art Day workshop for nine children aged 8-12, inspired by the work of the “walking artist” Hamish Fulton, who has walked the Camino de Santiago several times.
The workshop had two parts. First, participants carried out a “slow walk” exercise inside the museum inspired by Fulton’s artistic practice. Then the group went outside and walked a small section of the Camino de Santiago, which passes through the University of Navarra campus near the museum.
Through this combination of walking, observation, and conversation, the children explored how movement and place can become part of artistic experience.
At Slow Art Day HQ, we love seeing hosts expand the idea of slow looking in creative ways. By combining careful observation with walking and place-based exploration, the Museo Universidad de Navarra created two thoughtful experiences that helped adults and children connect with art in different ways.
We look forward to seeing what Museo Universidad de Navarra comes up with for Slow Art Day 2026.
– Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl