Arturo Herrera Caracas, Venezuela, born 1959
Set Design Studies For Dance Elements N° 1–15, 2019
Collage and mixed media on hand-made paper
Series of 15 collages: 19 5/8 x 29 3/8 inches (50 x 74.5 cm) each
Overall as installed in "The (grand) GESTURE" exhibition January, 2025: 71 x 168 1/2" (180.3 x 428 cm)
Overall as installed in "The (grand) GESTURE" exhibition January, 2025: 71 x 168 1/2" (180.3 x 428 cm)
Arturo Herrera’s diverse body of work draws upon Modernist strategies of fragmentation and repetition to explore the mutability of images and how they are perceived. Working through multiple forms of...
Arturo Herrera’s diverse body of work draws upon Modernist strategies of fragmentation and repetition to explore the mutability of images and how they are perceived. Working through multiple forms of media, including collage, his abstractions often play with the ambiguity between what is revealed and what is concealed, and how such visual information or associations are transmitted to the viewer. Dance and choreography have been a significant influence on Herrera’s practice: he describes choreography as “unifying,” defined by certain steps and interactions with space in a way that parallels the composite elements of a collage.
Herrera's "Set Design Studies for Dance Elements" is a series of fifteen multimedia works on handmade paper, each evincing a unique configuration of mark-making against a bright pink backdrop. Cut-and-pasted fragments are alternately overlaid and overlapping with vivid scrapes of paint and angular formations. The visual information garnered by these abstract elements averts direct legibility but, combined with the title's diagrammatic intent, suggests a framing of action and various temporal progressions: curtains drawn, set pieces lowered and shifted in between scenes, and the ghosted gestures of the performing dancer.
Herrera's "Set Design Studies for Dance Elements" is a series of fifteen multimedia works on handmade paper, each evincing a unique configuration of mark-making against a bright pink backdrop. Cut-and-pasted fragments are alternately overlaid and overlapping with vivid scrapes of paint and angular formations. The visual information garnered by these abstract elements averts direct legibility but, combined with the title's diagrammatic intent, suggests a framing of action and various temporal progressions: curtains drawn, set pieces lowered and shifted in between scenes, and the ghosted gestures of the performing dancer.
