Cultural Area

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At OMA we believe that encouraging the arts contributes to moments of relaxation that feed the spirit. Our airports feature expositions of sculpture, paintings, and photography.

You can find the following pieces at the Culiacan airport:


"Mural Juya-Annia"

Alejandro Mojica
Mixed technique over canvas
4X8 mts.

In the Mayo-yoreme tradition, in northern Sinaloa, Juya-annia (nature) is the central spiritual axis where all traditional activities converge and there is a rich cultural expression to be found. When a musician or dancer begins his or her commitment to tradition, he or she has to choose a Juya-annia, that is to say, a human nature, be it land, river, or sea. They then have to enact each dance, song or traditional activity as if they were the animal, plant, rock or any other natural element in that environment. That way, the concept of nature has many signifiers and meanings.

This mural represents what happens when an artist dies without defining their nature, their Juya'annia, and is unable to find peace. The branches of nature in its three versions: land, river and sea, try to take the artist's Jiapsi (soul) which is represented by his mask, water drum, harp, jiruquia, and song. The edges of the mural represent tenabares (butterfly cocoons that tangle in the legs to produce percussion music), on the left side they mix with blood, on the right side they mix with the sea. The inverted Y is a river that drags the artist's body and leaves it by two blankets (body and soul); one where the artist can leave his muscal instrucments and the other is a sacred christian mantle; the imprint of his body in the shape of a deer. The white prints, which represent what oral tradition survives today through songs, bring his soul to the edge of the sea, and the waves erase the prints so no one know where the messenger coyote lives.

Alejandro Mojica was born in Teocaltiche, Jalisco, and now lives in Culiacan. He has had more than 40 individual shows and 100 collective expositions both in Mexico and abroad. These include the Sinaloa Museum of Art in Culiacán; Praxis Gallery in Mexico City; Cultural University Center in Cuernavaca, Morelos; San Pedro Auditorium in Monterrey; CECUT in Tijuana, BC; Baja California State University, Mexicali, B.C.; Museum of Modern Art in Querétaro; Diego Rivera House in Guanajuato; Praxis Gallery in Lima, Peru; Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Center for the Fine Arts in Miami, Florida;  Community Arts Council in Vancouver, Canada; Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, Texas; Art Expo Fial in Brussels, Belgium; Modern Art Museum in Cuenca, Ecuador; Tule Gallery in Seattle, Washington; Slato Gallery in Caracas, Venezuela;  Roman Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona; PetroPerú Gallery, Lima, Peru; and the Taiwan National Gallery in Taipei.

“Welcome to Sinaloa”

Antonio López Sáenz
Bronze sculpture

“Welcome to Sinaloa” is the sculpture located by the main airport access, welcoming the millions of visitors to the city. This piece was donated by the Colegio de Sinaloa to the Sinaloa state government in 2003, and the authorities considered the best place to exhibit it was the Culiacan Airport.

A distinctive feature of Antonio Lopez Saenz's paintings and sculptures is that the people in it don't have faces and their bodies are large in proportion to their heads.

Antonio Lopez Saenz is a prominent artist in Mexico and abroad. His work has been exhibited in world capitals, showcasing the culture, values, thoughts and dreams of the people of Sinaloa.

Aside from being a painter, he is also an extraordinary sculptor whose work is harmonious with the themes and poetic realism so present in his paintings. That is why this mazatlecan artist does not create monumental or giant works, but something much closer to the people in size and theme.