The Mexico City-based interior designer José “Pepe” Mendoza is known for his brass furniture, lighting, tabletop accessories, and hardware pieces. With their turquoise and malachite-colored ceramic inlay, Mendoza's chunky, modernist interpretations of Mesoamerican glyphs and their healthy proportions evoke Blackman Cruz's fondess for Latin American Modernism.
Mendoza had a storied history as the manufacturer of arms for General Pancho Villa, who helped lead the Mexican Revolution, which overthrew dictator Porfirio Díaz, and Mendoza used this foundry to produce his work. In 1957, Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman, contemporaries of Charles and Ray Eames, met Mendoza in Mexico City and began distributing his work through their Los Angeles-based ERA Industries.
Like many modernist creatives, the Ackermans were part of the design conversation between Mexico and California that had been going on for decades. In the early 1920s, the Mayan touches on the reliefs of Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis and Hollyhock Houses signaled that Los Angeles was hospitable to such motifs. Meanwhile, in Mexico City, emigres like Clara Porset from Cuba and Bauhaus veteran Michael van Beuren incorporated Mexican craft into their work, earning national recognition in the 1941 Museum of Modern Art's exhibition Organic Design in Home Furnishings. Later, in 1951, esteemed Los Angeles writer Esther McCoy edited an issue heralding Mexican design for the avant-garde Arts & Architecture magazine that highlighted architects like Juan O'Gorman and Luis Barragán.
Adam Blackman first saw Mendoza's work in the 1990s—a pedestal table—which which he couldn't resist. In a rare coincidence, the table's mate crossed his path a week later, three thousand miles away at his friend Ken Erwin's store, AK1114. That lightning only struck once, and today, Mendoza's work remains as rare as it is recognizable. With its intricate inlay in Aztec and natural forms like fish, birds, seashells, and sunbursts, Mendoza's creations, whether they are brass boxes, tables, lamps, or hardware, continue to keep Blackman Cruz's passion for Pepe alive.
Stacie Stukin, excerpted from Beauty & Mischief
