Victoria Miro is delighted to participate in the inaugural edition of Frieze Los Angeles with a solo booth of new paintings by the Spanish artist Secundino Hernández, who will be present at the fair with the gallery.
One of the most dynamic painters of his generation, Secundino Hernández is celebrated for a spirited enquiry into the language, history and enduring potential of abstraction. New works made especially for Frieze LA continue his investigation into the vocabulary of painting–line, form, gesture and colour–and historical classifications of the medium–action and colourfield painting, the monochrome–to create images that, radiating a sense of urgency, explore not only their own process of creation but our responses to a painted surface.
For Hernández, painting is both a physical and cerebral activity, a conduit for intellectual and philosophical enquiry. Whether employing strong linear elements, by turns painterly or calligraphic, or rich bursts of colour, his work corrals diverse influences within a signature abstract language, often collapsing traditional distinctions and hierarchies. In Hernández’s hands, a monochrome might also be an action painting, while an action painting might, on closer inspection, reveal itself to be an almost archaeological excavation of the picture plane.
These latest paintings pivot between spontaneity and improvisation, action and reflection. Foregrounding colour and gesture, sometimes partially erased through a process of washing the canvas with a jet of water, the resulting works have a dramatic, exploratory quality and openly display the triumphs and challenges of the artist’s practice. Discussing the tension between calculation and spontaneity in these works, the artist says: ‘When the works succeed, I see a dance between pictorial languages and a balance between something which is very much under control and something else which is accidental.’ The use of the word ‘dance’ is key. Rhythms–variously turbulent, lilting or exuberantly waltzing–impress themselves both within and between the works on view.
The presentation also includes a number of small-scale ‘palette’ paintings by the artist. Created through a highly visceral accumulation of pigment, the palette works, which Hernández refers to as being ‘like a diary of everyday life in the studio’, are akin to amplified versions of the functional artist’s palette. Their intense impasto-like surfaces transform the ‘stuff’ of painting, its blunt materiality, into undulating terrains of pigment – elemental and compelling.
Secundino Hernández was born in 1975 in Madrid, where he currently lives and works. Solo exhibitions of his work have recently presented at CAC Málaga, Spain (2018); Taidehalli Helsinki, Finland (2018); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France (2014); Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2007, 2010, 2014); Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland (2010, 2014, 2017); Galerie Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Spain (2006, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2019) and Galerie Bärbel Grässlin (2013, 2016, 2018). The artist has also participated in group shows including Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (2017); Abstract Painting Now, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, Austria (2017); Das Allerletze Prof. Winkler Stipendium at Kunstverein Weiden, Austria (2013); Alone Together at the Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami, USA (2013); Dialogos DKV - Patio Herreriano at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Espanol, Valladolid, Spain (2013); Berlin Status 1 at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2012) and Berlin Klondyke 2011 at Art Center Los Angeles, USA (2011). His work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid, Spain; Helga de Alvear Foundation, Cáceres, Spain; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA; Kunstdepot Göschenen, Switzerland and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada.
Opening Hours
The inaugural edition of Frieze Los Angeles will open with a two-day preview on Thursday, February 14 and Friday, February 15.
Thursday Preview, February 14 (invitation only)
Friday Preview & Private View, February 15: 2pm - 8pm
Saturday, February 16: 12pm - 7pm
Sunday, February 17: 12pm - 6pm
Getting to Frieze Los Angeles
Frieze Los Angeles will take place at Paramount Pictures Studios, a working movie studio lot. Taxi and Rideshare drop-off and pick-up points for the fair will be located at:
• 801 N Gower Street
• 900 N Van Ness Avenue
Please note, there will be no access at Paramount Pictures Studios' Melrose Gate for Frieze guests.
Victoria Miro represents these artists: