Alejandro Cartagena's Ground Rules retrospective at SFMOMA explores Mexican urban transformation

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presents Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules, a comprehensive survey of the photographer's two-decade career examining Mexico's evolving landscapes. The exhibition features over twenty projects, including the multiyear Suburbia Mexicana (2005–2010) that documents relationships between urban centers and surrounding suburbs. Cartagena's celebrated Carpoolers series (2011–2012) captures laborers commuting in pickup truck flatbeds along Highway 85 between Monterrey's wealthy districts and outlying areas. Another series, Suburban Bus (2016), resulted from the artist riding buses continuously for three days retracing his 1990s commute to his family's restaurant in Juárez. SFMOMA director Christopher Bedford notes that while Cartagena's photographs originate from Mexican observations, they spark broader geographical conversations. The retrospective includes recent formal experiments like collage and the AI-generated work We Are Things (2025), trained on the artist's personal archive. Cartagena's signature photobooks receive prominent display. The artist, born in 1977, has lived in Mexico since age thirteen and uses photography to investigate social, political, and environmental questions facing contemporary societies. He believes the medium transformed world perception two centuries ago and aims to contribute to its ongoing historical impact. The exhibition runs through April 19 at SFMOMA.