Mercedes E. González

Henrique Faria is pleased to present Black Holes, Mercedes Elena González’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition brings together a selection of González's meticulously executed drawings and paintings from 2019 until today. This show is a curated selection from Agujeros Negros, an exhibition presented at Sala TAC in Caracas in November of 2023 that was awarded “Best Solo Show” of the year in Venezuela by the International Association of Art Critics.

Beginning in 1976, sidelined by the dominant trends that surrounded her in Venezuela, González's work has been focused on the feminine form and its exploration of the biological and social body. As Ruth Auerbach describes in the exhibition text: “Vulvas, flowers, neurons, cells and a variety of orifices—all examined under her curious microscopic gaze—correspond to an essential and suggestive iconography of the biological, which alludes to the artist herself, to her condition as a woman.”

Born from an unrelenting creative impulse, Gonzalez’s practice explores a complex universe of images revealing the close ties between the physical body, scientific cosmology, biodiversity, and structural systems. Auerbach continues: “The exhibition Black Holes takes its name from a polyptych of six drawings produced at the beginning of this millennium. In each one, small ovoid forms increase proportionally at the center of the support. This piece marks a transition from her early works, conceived when she was a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, that reference the visual contemplation of feminine anatomy. In addition, her later investigations of cellular division led her to strategies of fragmentation and serialization. These enigmatic orifices fringed with thin organic filaments and, also, the ogive forms, obtained from the intersection of two circles, herald the most productive and mature period of her work. The ogives simultaneously explore cosmic entities and outer space, which then lead to the paradoxes of biological body versus astral universe as antipodes: micro and macro, color and darkness, representation, and abstraction.”

González created a new series of works during the pandemic which combine her biological illustrations with a personal view of the world during confinement. "Corona Roll" (2020-2021), an eleven-meter-long drawing that reinterprets the virus as villainous antagonist of a film-noir, is also included in this exhibition.

Black Holes invites the viewer to explore the female form, the intricacies of biology, and the vastness of the cosmos.

Mercedes Elena González (Caracas, Venezuela, 1952) studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, from 1976-1980. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions including Agujeros Negros, Sala TAC, Caracas (2023), Femenine Ecology, Henrique Faria, New York (2018), September 1955, Henrique Faria, New York and Sala Mendoza, Caracas (2014); Pelikan, Faría + Fábregas Galería, Caracas (2009); Obra Recente, Galería Valu Oria, São Paulo (2008); Bichus Invasion, Signature Art Gallery, Miami (2006); Entretejimientos, Sala Alternativa, Caracas (2001) and Dibujos, La Librería, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (1982 and 1977), among others. She has participated in group shows such as Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017) and the Brooklyn Museum, New York and Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (forthcoming 2018); Ciudad Volátil, Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas (2011); Figuración-Fabulación, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (2004); Muestra 2, Sala Alternativa, Mexico City (2003); La mujer venezolana en las artes, Wang Fu Gallery, Beijing and Festival Internacional de La Pinturee, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (1995); Salón Nacional de Jóvenes Artistas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber, Caracas (1981) and Once Tipos, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (1978). González has won numerous awards for her work, including the Premio Armando Reverón, from Salón Michelena, Caracas (2002); the Gran Premio Salón Nacional de Arte Aragua, Salón Aragua (2001) and the Bolsa de Trabajo Conac, (1976). Her work is included in both private and public collections internationally. She lives and works in Caracas.