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January 25 - April 6, 2003
Santa Fe, NM
SITE Santa Fe presents José Antonio Hernández-Diez, the
first major museum exhibition in the United States of the work by this acclaimed
Venezuelan artist. The exhibition will be on view at SITE Santa Fe January
25, 2003 through April 6, 2003, with a free public opening reception Friday,
January 24, from 6 to 7 pm.
One of the most important Latin American artists of the last decade, Hernández-Diez
creates candid, poetic, and, at times, disturbing and irreverent multimedia
installations inspired by the vernacular culture and traditions of his home
country. Hernández-Diez is part of a new generation of Venezuelan artists
who began creating multimedia installations that challenged the aesthetic
traditions that had dominated Venezuelan art since the early 1950s. The emergence
of this generation of artists occurred in the late 1980s, at nearly the same
time that Venezuelans began a public process of searching for the solution
to the economic and social crisis in their country. Hernández-DiezŐs
work is as engaged in the particular context of local culture as it is in
the language of international post-modernism. This exhibition includes eight
large-scale installations created between 1991 and 2000.
In many ways, Hernández-DiezŐs work represents a reaction against stereotypical
views of Latin American identity. He breaks expectations about cultural patterns
to address popular culture and society in a poetic, indirect manner. He often
incorporates cultural clichés in a playful manner, using sardonic humor
and occasionally employing interactive components as part of his work.
A guiding principal of Hernández-DiezŐs work is the discomfort of the
human species caught between its animal state and something more exalted.
It is the paradox underlying what it means to be human that provides the universal
bond in his art, connecting works that seem separately motivated by politics,
morality, or group behavior. Making and reinforcing the contradiction between
our desire to act like a highly evolved species and our inescapable tendency
to behave like animals, Hernández-Diez reflects a humanistic resonance
without simplifying the moral predicaments created by contemporary society.
José Antonio Hernández-Diez was born in Caracas, Venezuela in
1964. He currently lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.
This exhibition is organized by the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York,
co-curated by Dan Cameron, senior curator, and Gerardo Mosquera, adjunct curator,
New Museum of Contemporary Art. The first scholarly catalogue on Hernández-Diez
will accompany the exhibition and will include essays by Dan Cameron and Gerardo
Mosquera.
José Antonio Hernández-Diez is made possible by
generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; Elizabeth Firestone
Graham Foundation; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas;
and Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz.
Concurrent with José Antonio Hernández-Diez, SITE
Santa Fe will present the work of Nic Nicosia. Nic Nicosia
is organized by SITE Santa Fe, courtesy of the artist; Dunn and Brown Contemporary,
Dallas; and P.P.O.W., New York. This exhibition will include 10 large-scale
photographs and a video projection, as well as a new film commissioned by
SITE Santa Fe.
SITE Santa Fe is located at 1606 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Exhibition
hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. Đ 5:00 pm; Friday, 10:00 am
Đ 7:00 pm. Admission is $5.00 for adults and $2.50 for students and seniors;
members are free. Free admission is offered on Fridays, made possible by a
grant from The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston. Free guided tours are offered
on Fridays at 6:00 pm and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tours in Spanish
are by appointment. SITE Santa Fe gift certificates are available. Call 505.989.1199
for more information. This announcement is partially funded by the City of
Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% LodgersŐ Tax.
Contact: Press Office
Tel: 505.989.1199
Fax:505.989.1188
email: press@sitesantafe.org
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Marx, 2002
C-Print photograph
82 x 62 inches
Courtesy of the artist |
