Gloria Cortina: Interiors, Modernity & Myth

An updated illustrated survey overview highlighting the most outstanding projects by the well-established and renowned Mexican interior and furniture designer Gloria Cortina.

Superbly photographed, this beautifully crafted volume presents Cortina’s most recent interior projects and unique furniture pieces.

Cortina’s design inspirations range from Mayan artifacts to cubism, twentieth-century modernist art and architecture, Mexico’s unique arts and crafts heritage, and natural and archaeological environments.

Her unique approach to design, shaped by the visions of Mexican masters such as Diego Rivera and Luis Barragán, seeks to consolidate European and modernist influences with Mexico’s own arts and crafts heritage in pieces characterized by luxurious materials like tropical wood, stone, textured metal, and rich textiles sourced both locally and worldwide. Her designs are known for mixing Mexican antiquities, bespoke artisan-made pieces, and contemporary artworks and for her exquisitely rendered and sculptural pieces in bronze, obsidian, and quartz.

This volume will present Cortina’s blend of Old World sophistication and Mexican flair, which has affirmed her position as an arbiter of taste among the country’s elite; her aesthetic reflects the cosmopolitan nature of contemporary life in Mexico. Cortina’s recent projects range from Cabo San Lucas vacation homes for tech and finance giants to a new penthouse suite at the Sebastian resort in Vail, Colorado, luxury apartments in New York, and monumental homes in Mexico City.

About the Author:

Gloria Cortina was born and raised in Mexico City and studied at Parsons School of Design in New York. After a period of working with architect David Ling in New York, she returned to Mexico to work for the architect Ricardo Legorreta, later joining forces with others to launch the avant-garde firm A5 Arquitectura. In 2009 she established her own studio. Sean Kelly is a British, New York-based gallerist, contemporary art dealer, and owner of the Sean Kelly Gallery, New York. Jay Merrick is an architecture critic of The Independent and a regular essayist for the Architects Journal. He also contributes to leading magazines such as Blueprint, ArtReview and the periodical London Magazine.