The small beachfront property has integrated his beautiful works

A successful hotelier needs to understand the essence of a location before inviting guests to experience the space. It’s what differentiates a mere getaway from a truly transformative experience. At La Zebra, a boutique hotel in Tulum, a chance on a local artist turned a small beachfront property into a gallery-worthy establishment that favors fun over fancy.

Artist Enrique Diaz had a small but loyal following in Tulum when hotelier John Kendall first met him. After moving to Tulum from Jiquipilas, Chiapas, Diaz would ride around on a bicycle and teach art lessons to local children. His idealism and his curiosity made him the perfect teacher. When he wasn’t teaching, he was painting. Bright colors, supernatural motifs and Mexican folk art weave their way through Diaz’s canvases. He often works with natural materials, and the result is raw and real. There’s no delineation between where the art ends and the surroundings begin. It all melds together.

Kendall immediately sensed something different about Diaz’s aesthetic and knew that if he built and decorated his Tulum getaway while infusing it with Diaz’s spirit, the result would speak for itself. Diaz says, “I showed up ready to work the next day. John believed in me more than I believed in myself.” 

Diaz’s art is introspective, soulful and rooted in Mexican tradition. The colors are lively, and that was always important to Kendall. One of Diaz’s most instrumental works is a series of wooden tables that have been painted with prominent Mexican images. The wood is the perfect medium for Diaz’s detailed brushstrokes but there’s something surprising about the way that this art is integrated into the act of eating. A painting on a wall offers viewers the ability to interact with their eyes alone. A dinner table is more tactile. As food is passed around, the art becomes interactive. The lines are blurred between the quotidian and the surreal. And that, at its essence, is what Diaz brings to La Zebra.

La Zebra recently launched an outdoor boutique space dedicated to all things Diaz, as well as items from his wife, Celia Mandujano. Envisioning this gallery space, set amidst Tulum’s lush vegetation, you have an idea of what to expect of Tienda La Zebra—a space to interact with the artist and touch and feel the various ways he manipulates mediums from burlap sacks to coconut shells.