Arturo Herrera

Sikkema Jenkins & Co. is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Arturo Herrera, the artist’s sixth solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from October 10 through November 15, 2014.

Over the past fifteen years, Arturo Herrera has developed a diverse body of work that includes collages, painted wood sculptures, paper cut-outs, felt pieces and wall installations. The current exhibition features Herrera’s first paintings.

The show includes works on linen, aluminum and canvas. The paintings are built on top of the imagery and language of found materials, such as cloth bags, commercial flags and banners, thrift store paintings, and embroidered tablecloths. These works challenge the traditional two-dimensionality of painting by deconstructing the surface of the picture plane. Layers of material hang loosely over the canvas like pages or curtains, both revealing and veiling what is below. The paintings preserve the separation of layers that they are made of, giving them an almost sensual, clothing-like sense of the surface and the body below.

These large scale works are punctuated by a series of intimate “book paintings,” in which the pages of flea-market books from a variety of genres are sealed shut by the spills and drips of paint.

Moving away from the psychological metaphor of “the cut” prevalent in his earlier work, here Herrera uses his ability to create compelling graphic forms, constructing what might be called “object-based paintings.” These hybrids of language and image reference the contemporary concept of the mash-up, most often ascribed to music, into the physical arena of abstract painting. The exhibition proposes the inclusion and importance of language and signs within abstraction, arguing that abstraction is not simply an optical exercise but a multi-layered experience that may be read.