Revolutions per minute is the third solo exhibition by Venezuelan artist José Antonio Hernández-Diez (Caracas, 1964) to be held at the Galería Elba Benítez. The show, which opens to coincide with ARCO06, features the artist’s most recent output, autobiographical pieces reflecting on human urges and desires.

José Antonio Hernández-Diez, began his artistic career at the end of the eighties. Among his most outstanding work at this time were the videos “Anabel Lee” (1988) and “Houdini” (1989). Hernández-Diez’s early work is characterized by a strong emotional/existential undercurrent. Religious and socio-economic criticism is also a feature of his first large-scale installations. Works such as “Lavarás tus pecados” (“You Shall Wash Your Sins”, 1991) and “Sagrado Corazón activo” (“Active Sacred Heart”, 1991) pull no punches in their content, or in the unexpected association of elements of disparate origin, form and function. Other pieces such as “Vas pa’l cielo y vas llorando” (“You go to heaven and you go crying”, 1992) and “In God we trust” (1990) condemn the economic and social inequalities between the United States and Latin America. In the nineties, Jose Antonio Hernández-Diez produced a series of works made from skateboards in an allusion to street children, but in which he also began to speak about how certain products are consumed as social branding, an aspect that would mark his work from the end of the nineties onwards. An outstanding piece from this series is “La hermandad” (“The Bortherhood”, 1994, Fundación la Caixa Collection, Barcelona). In the nineties, the political and social components faded away to make room for large-scale sculptural works, the manufacture of which was influenced by industry and design. In the year 2000, he would work on large sculptures based on everyday objects blown out of proportion, their purpose altered to reveal new uses and content: the casing of a remote control as a symbol of power, or enormous red nails as an image of a certain type of woman. At the beginning of 2000, José Antonio Hernández-Diez began to explore photography. That same year he produced a series of photographs using the initials on sports shoes to spell out the names of famous philosophers and thinkers. The peculiarity and effectiveness of these works is the result of bringing together very different kinds of symbol –ones that at some point have served (or serve) as social referents– in one image.

In the “Revolutions per minute” exhibition José-Antonio Hernández-Diez continues to explore a line of work he has developed since the beginning of his career through the use of machines. His first artwork to employ this kind of machine was “Gran Patriarca” (“Grand Patriarch”, 1993, CIFO Collection, Miami). The piece, which consisted of a billiard table and a massive mechanical arm, depicts a repeated, but unsuccessful, attempt to play a shot: frustration and impotence result from the impossibility of attaining the desired goal. The artist’s childhood fascination for machines was strengthened by an artistic training under the influence of kinetic art, which flourished in the Venezuela of his youth. Repetitive movement with no beginning or end is one of the hallmarks of this artist’s work. This movement, like human yearnings –the will to do better or sexual desire– accompanies man throughout his life. In his recent one-man show at the Sala Mendoza, in Caracas, José Antonio Hernández-Diez presented the piece “ Twin Brothers” (2005) in which the artist’s jeans –in a vaguely Solomonic scene– were dragged from right to left by two machines; being a metaphor for the artist’s dilemma of having to choose between his desire to live in Venezuela, his native country, or in Spain, his adopted country. “Revolutions per minute” consists of 4 installations. “My fucking dreams” (2006), features a shirt hanging high up on a wall of the gallery caught by a machine attempting to drag it down to the ground. Dreams gradually fade before the gentle, yet persistent, minutiae of everydayness. Once again, the artist uses his own jeans for “My fucking jeans” (2006). The jeans are managed, grabbed and jigged about by a machine making them dance without pause to the rhythm dictated by the machine. “Mi talón de Aquiles” (“My Achilles Heel”) illustrates, not without humour, man’s weaknesses. Lastly, the installation “La vida que mi mamá quería” (“The Life my Mum Wanted”, 2006) displays a variety of elements, embodying the icons of success and social acclaim. The title conjugated in Spanish, imperfect, past tense indicates that once again he is dealing with unfulfilled desires.

The work of José Antonio Hernández Díez enjoys great international acclaim. His work has been presented in solo shows at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo (2000), at the ICA Institute of Contemporary Art of Palm Beach, Florida (2002), at the New Museum of Contemporary Art of New York (2003) and recently at the Sala Mendoza, Caracas, 2005. He has also taken part in major group exhibitions and biennials, among others, “Aperto’93 Emergency-Emergenze” XLV Biennale de Venezia 1993, Biennial of Habana 1994, “Cocido y crudo” group exhibition at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 1994, “Universalis” XXIII International Biennial of Sao Paulo, 1996, “In Site San Diego 97”, San Diego, “Da adversidade vivemos” Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris and “Ultrabarroque, aspects of Post Latin American art” exhibition presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2002, at the Miami Art Museum, 2002 and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

Pía Ogea

ARCO 06:
From 8 to 13 February. Pabellón 9 Stand 9C229

For more information :
Pía Ogea. Tel. 91 308 04 68 e-mail: piaogea@elbabenitez.com

Gallery opening hours:
Tuesday to Saturday from 11.00 to 14.00 and from 16.30 to 20.30.

Next exhibition : Jorge Pardo. April-May

san lorenzo, 11 28.004 madrid tel.(34)91 308 04 68 fax.(34) 91 319 01 69 e- mail: info@elbabenitez.com www.elbabenitez.com