In a corner of the Urban Culture Fest in Mexico City last weekend at the World Trade Center was a large and multi-genre art installation produced by The City Lives You collective headed up by Cesar Oretega, a.k.a. Veneno. As part of the fashion and music fest representing various branches of urban culture, the installation also accounted for what’s going on in Mexico, including the strong market in urban vinyl toys and art, screenprinting, pixel art, and on-site, live graffiti via artists painting 8-foot high panels throughout the 3-day event.

The main gallery was first layered in newspaper, then painted over or posted with various prints represented by Kone, Mach One, Smithe, Dear, Seher, Lady Love, Mark Renton, Zombra, Quique Ollervides, Siames, 3Dead, Valk Morthem, Saner, Mookiena, Zhon, and Neuzz. In the middle was a glass case with custom toys by Alfredo Mejia, Toloache, Eyel, Fouz, Bere & Bere, Zoveck, Ed Sison, plus limited edition urban vinyl toys of the Mexican creations by Kid Robot.

In a city known for huge creative murals created by national artists over the course of hundreds of years, it makes sense that the live painting murals on 8-foot-high panel boards over the course of 3 days was a very vibrant and creative experience for onlookers who frequented this section of the Fest each day. Artists chosen for the live painting sessions came at the beginning of each day and completed their pieces by the end, including Dear, Simthe, News Friday, Saner, Mookiena the Sabado, Seher, and ISego.

The City Loves You (which also has a cool blog at www.thecitylovesyou.com) continues to bring Mexico’s urban art scene to the forefront with various events throughout the year. At last week’s inaugural Urban Fest, clearly the street-art scene is a thriving multi-layered culture ranging in collectibles, prints, and urban vinyl toys recontextualized and created by and for the burgeoning Latin marketplace.