A curated monthly dose of lifestyle, culture, and rhythm from San Miguel de Allende.
This season, San Miguel welcomes Tienda Paraíso, a group exhibition curated by Victoire Sidhoum, opening on Thursday, August 28 at 4pm inside the hidden gem French Doors Art Speakeasy in Centro.
In San Miguel, even the most familiar spaces can shift into something unexpected. On Thursday, August 28, the French Doors Art Speakeasy opens its doors to Tienda Paraíso, a group exhibition curated by Victoire Sidhoum that reimagines the gallery as a Mexican tienda. But this is no ordinary corner shop. Inside, color, fragrance, and form collide to create a living, breathing installation where art and daily ritual dissolve into one.
Step into Tienda Paraíso and you enter a world of contradictions made harmonious. The tin shelves of the traditional tienda become a stage for contemporary ceramics, textiles, and masks. Fragrance mingles with pigment, craft takes on the aura of myth, and objects usually touched in passing become icons worthy of contemplation. The exhibition blurs the space between the precious and the ordinary, reminding us that beauty lives in the everyday.
Ten visionary artists shape this world, each offering a fragment of the larger dream:
Ri Anderson catches light as it slips away, weaving memory into textile and photograph.
Jorge Caracheo and Dana Altamirano bring earth and fire together, ceramics pulsing with painterly energy.
Alberto Lenz bends jewelry and sculpture into relics that feel both ancient and futuristic.
Maria Portilla stitches Mexico’s heart into fabric and clay, her work vibrating with color and pattern.
Jean-Sebastien Ruyer turns printmaking into meditations on story and shape.
Pierre-Louis Graizon sculpts masks that command stillness, both ceremonial and sculptural.
Zoë Siegel invites touch and play through interactive glasses and masks.
Citlali Parra weaves the ancestral into the contemporary, creating textiles that speak across time.
Thierry Job molds matter into minimalist yet poetic forms.
Tomas Burkey paints modern mythologies, canvases alive with energy and vibration.
At the heart of Tienda Paraíso is something ephemeral, a scent. Sidhoum has designed an exclusive perfume that carries the essence of the exhibition itself. Six artists created vessels to hold it, each one turning fragrance into a collectible piece of art. In this collaboration, sight, touch, and smell merge into one sensory experience, leaving visitors with something that lingers beyond the gallery walls.
"How over the top this show is, is unrivaled"
Every corner of French Doors has been reimagined, transformed into a space that feels at once new and deeply familiar. Tienda Paraíso is not only an exhibition, it is a homecoming. Each object tells a story, each moment is charged with the possibility of discovery.
Thursday, August 28, from 4pm
French Doors Art Speakeasy
San Antonio Abad 32A, Centro (corner of Umarán)
Admission: Free
Tienda Paraíso invites you not just to see art, but to live it. Step inside the tienda, breathe it in, and let yourself be carried somewhere beyond the ordinary.
We're Savant, San Miguel de Allende’s new online lifestyle and culture magazine. Created for curious travelers, locals, and design and food lovers alike, Savant offers curated stories and an authentic look into the people, places, and passions that shape this iconic town. More than a publication, it’s a cultural community, and your invitation to experience San Miguel like never before.
A curated monthly dose of lifestyle, culture, and rhythm from San Miguel.
