Lee Broom's immersive lighting illuminates a Mexican villa

Lee Broom's Requiem Globe, left, and Hail chandelier, right, on view in Mexico City

(Image credit: Ema Peter)

British designer Lee Broom has filled a grand villa in Mexico City with more than 50 lighting works, creating an immersive experience of sculptural, theatrical illumination.

Opening to coincide with Mexico City Art Week, and lasting until 10 April 2026, ‘The Resident’ sees Broom’s designs installed throughout the rooms of a historic home belonging to Diez Company, a leading Mexican lighting design firm. Situated in the upscale neighbourhood of Polanco, the 1920s, three-storey villa has been transformed by Diez Company into an airy yet characterful showroom for the brand, as well as special design events like these.

The company, which has represented Broom’s brand in Mexico for many years, suggested the designer do a takeover of the villa. 'I thought it would be a really amazing opportunity to showcase my work,' says Broom, who carefully studied the setting in anticipation. 'I got a sense of the architecture of the building and what pieces I thought would resonate in what rooms. The idea was to create a fairly classic gallery presentation with a slight residential feel.'

The curated selection of works features works from the last 12 years, including the Hail chandelier, the Chant Portable Lamp, and pieces from the Requiem, Overture and Cascade series.

The Hail chandelier, newly crafted for the installation, cascades down the villa’s central atrium, an elegant array of glowing vertical lines against a grand, curved staircase.

Nearby, works from Broom’s Requiem series are hand-sculpted in plaster to resemble draped fabric. Poetic and intriguing, they gently trick the eye while inviting closer inspection. 'I love surrealist art and surrealism in general,' says Broom. He developed the technique behind the works when studying fashion at Central St Martins in London. 'I used to make corsetry and bodices out of plasterwork with fabric, and I wanted to revisit that with light fixtures,' he explains.

Lee Broom lighting in Mexican Villa — Overture collection of wallpaper for Calico

The art of trompe l’oeil and the motif of drapery is found also in the Overture collection, Broom’s first-ever wallpaper collaboration with Calico Wallpaper. Installed in a top-floor room overlooking the city, the work transforms the walls into theatrical yet restrained illusions, its visual cues blending surrealism with classical sculpture. As Broom explains, he was inspired by his background in theatre as a child actor. 'Some of my earliest memories are the scenography of the stage and the drapery – and the scenery that is painted to give that depth of field.“

Set against the atmospheric wallpaper are works from Cascade, Broom’s porcelain lighting series for Lladró, bringing a touch of Japanese modernism.

The recently launched Chant Portable Lamp – Broom’s first portable design – is found in a dramatic golden installation in the tiled bathroom, that Broom describes as 'nightclubbish'. A cube of hand-blown glass surrounds a glowing spherical lamp, all sitting on a base finished either in brushed gold, silver or bronze. The design, which draws inspiration from 1970s-era architectural glass blocks, provides a modernist counterpoint to the classically inspired details of the house.

In celebration of Mexico City Art Week, and the country’s rich creative culture, ‘The Resident’ also includes artworks by Mexican artists and designers, curated by Lee Broom to have 'resonance' with his own pieces. In the central atrium lies the geometric Amazones chair in travertine marble by local studio Ayres, its sculpted lines in dialogue with those of Broom’s wall-mounted square Pantheum light placed above.

A room with Broom’s large circular Aurora Ring chandelier is complemented by a hanging sculpture of celestially inspired concentric rings with marble fragments, by sculptor Karian Amaya. In another room, a geometric assemblage of Broom’s Orion lights plays off a solid wood and brass room divider by Simón Hamui.

It is Broom’s debut exhibition in Mexico, but one that feels a long time coming. As the designer explains: 'Although I’d never been to Mexico City before, I’ve been really inspired by it from afar – the architecture, the history of art, the materiality here.' Now, his works are in direct engagement with those inspirations.

The Resident by Lee Broom is on view until 10 April 2026

Campos Elíseos 136, Polanco V Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México, CDMX

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Francesca Perry is a London-based writer and editor covering design and culture. She has written for the Financial Times, CNN, The New York Times and Wired. She is the former editor of ICON magazine and a former editor at The Guardian.