2. Herrera was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1959. He lives and works in New York and Berlin, Germany. He is represented by the Brent Sikkema gallery.
3. Works include collages, reliefs, felt wall hangings, wall paintings, sculpture, drawings and some photography. His artwork can be described as a mix of popular culture and modernist abstraction. The techniques that Herrera practices are splicing, fragmentation and re-contextualization.
4. He has created hundreds of collages and other work. He has had solo exhibitions at places such as. Centre d’ArtContemporain in Geneva,Dia Center for the Arts in New York, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea inSantiago de Compostela, the Whitney Museum of American Art inNew York, UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York.
5. When he combines parts of well know objects, like cartoon characters, with abstract shapes and imagery, he changes the context and changes the emotion in the work. It creates a surreal feel. He collects illustrated books, comics, and paint-by-number paintings to cut up and makes his own material by piecing drawings, shapes and watercolors together. He is sometimes influenced by music . He often expresses that he wants his work be something that speaks to you. He likes the idea of vagueness or uncertainty and since a lot of his pieces are untitled, it’s unclear what they mean. He wants people to be able to use there memories or what they know to come up with there own meaning.
20. His wall paintings are often put together similar to his cartoon collages except he’s often inspired by traits of music. He is fascinated by music and describes it as being non objective, so he aims to make his paintingsthe same way. Structure is also an important aspect for him. He looks for things that will hold his images together. When he makes his felt pieces he pins the cut out shapes down or to the wall. Some of them are inspired by Jackson Pollock paintings.
22. “When Alone Again” 2001 Latex on wall. Installation at the Hammer Museum
23. Description: This wall painting “When Alone Again” is a latex painting that shows snow white and the three dwarfs. It shows images of the Disney cartoons with splatter painting. “When Alone Again”, 2001 Latex on wall. Installation at the Hammer Museum
24. Analysis: The work displays a good use of space. He tries to be random and uses lines and movement to confuse the viewer and stir imagination. There seems to be a lot of mayhem in the work. “When Alone Again”, 2001 Latex on wall. Installation at the Hammer Museum
25. Interpretation: I get a feeling of distress from the painting. From the viewers perspective it may appear to be about snow white. But others may go more in depth and try and connect it to confusion in life or society. Herrera aims to make viewers think is these ways to explore their own meanings in his work. “When Alone Again”, 2001 Latex on wall. Installation at the Hammer Museum
26. Judgment: It is a well put together piece that merges abstractionism and cartoon. It succeeds in evoking knowledge and inspiring imagination. “When Alone Again“, 2001 Latex on wall. Installation at the Hammer Museum
27. “Felt”#12 Red 2008 Wool felt h 104 x w 69.6 in h 264.2 x w 176.8 cm
32. http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists adaptation.uchicago.edu/artists/herrera/work arturoherrera: you go first, Essay by Friedrich Meschede http://www.sikkemajenkinsco.com/arturoherrera_works.html www.artnet.com/artists/arturo-herrera hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition http://www.moma.org/collection/ hostmaster.the-artists.org/artist/Arturo-Herrera References
