Gonzalo Hernandez

Kates-Ferri Projects is proud to present Gonzalo Hernandez’s first solo exhibition We Will Have to Tear Down All These Walls. The Peruvian-born multimedia artist consistently investigates labor and the capitalist’s impact on individuals in his work. In his newest series, AB (short for Art Basel), the artist interrogates the relationship between the art market and the artists by analyzing the art included in the prestigious art fair.

Happening upon a Craigslist ad selling Art Basel catalogs the year the fair turned twenty, Hernandez felt it an appropriate tool to reflect on the art, the artists, the market, and the role of the fair. For many, showing at Art Basel suggests that they have made it to the top of the art market. Hernandez selects, at random, images of works from the catalogs to feature in his work, proposing that “making it” is perhaps by chance. Using the Craigslist circular radius that shows the range of the pick-up as a recurring motif, Hernandez cuts out circles from various artworks in the catalogs. He creates paper collages with these circles or uses the pages with the missing circles as the first sketch. Based on these collages, he makes textile work and oil on canvas in black and white and in color with handmade frames. He connects these literal dots of art almost haphazardly, next to and on top of one another, as he acknowledges the impreciseness and the overabundance of the market. To underline the effect of market forces, Hernandez keeps his frames incomplete to connote how artists and their work are presented in certain ways to ensure marketability. As some of the artists in the catalogs are now forgotten, one could argue that Art Basel might not a great indicator of market longevity and wonder what becomes of an artist after arriving at this supposed pinnacle, or other markers of success.

Ultimately, artists must negotiate their place between not only museums and galleries, but also between collectors and curators. AB_Agglomeration (2023) foregrounds this complex interplay. Taking up much of the floor of the gallery, it is the centerpiece of the exhibition. The textile transfer is propped up by actual Art Basel catalogs to create a landscape of incomplete artworks. Forming an illusion of the art landscape, Hernandez pieces together knowledge of the unstable terrain that all contemporary artists must navigate.

The title of the exhibition comes from Szántós’s conversation with Koyo Kouoh. The Executive Director of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, argues that it is time to rethink the white cube, synonymous with today’s commercial art galleries and big museum exhibitions. Kouoh shares Afriart Gallery’s founder Daudi Karungi’s multifaceted approach to building an ecosystem for artists and communities to find creative platforms along with sustainable growth and security. Hernandez joins Kouoh’s call to break the frame of how art and artists are viewed, discussed, received, and operate in the art world.

Gonzalo Hernandez (b. 1991) lives and works between Miami, Florida and Lima, Peru. His work has been exhibited internationally, with recent solo and group exhibitions including ):) at the Scad Museum of Art; Sorry Not Sorry: posiciones, disposiciones y oposiciones, curated by Max Hernandez, at CCPUCP, Lima; The Artist as Muse, curated by Ariella Wolens and Ben Tollefson, at Gutstein Gallery, Savannah; Celebrating Georgia Artists of Hispanic/Latinx Origin at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; Java at La Vitrina de la Oficina m20 Hotel Savoy Lima; Threaded, curated by Mark Newport and Maria-Elisa Heg at MCC Art Gallery, Mesa, Arizona; and A Paris a Lima at Alianza Francesa de Lima. Hernandez was part of the first Chuquimarca residency program in Chicago in 2020 and also Artist in Residency at Longroadprojects & Erie Arts and Culture in Erie, Pa. He studied at Escuela de Artes Visuales Corriente Alterna in Lima, Peru and holds a M.F.A in Fibers and M.A in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is currently artist in residency at the Bakehouse Art Complex.