Víctor Manuel Hernández Castillo

prints

August 1st - 12th, 2017

On Tuesday, August 1st is opened the exhibition of Mexican artist, Víctor Manuel Hernández Castillo.

"The series of prints made between 2007 and 2014 is based on the metamorphosis of the ephemeral. This conceptual approach led me to explore new figurative and iconographic forms in a traditional medium, lino printing. Its basic character allowed me to develop the obvious spontaneity of printmaking in black and white, with the clear intention to give this discipline an important place in contemporary printmaking.

The interest for the grotesque, as a mode of graphic representation, distorts and disfigures natural forms in which human features can be seen through the animal metamorphosis. The process of distorting and disfiguring is progressive in some of the works- from the movement in the calligraphy of the line print in white., – and in others, the distortion remains dormant in the deep blacks. Expressiveness in graphic figures is obtained throughout metal engraving and it comes to its most capacity of expression due to the character and speed of the line. Under the rules of grotesque aesthetic I emphasize too much on ironic and hilarious fantasies, in some cases these might become anecdote, where humans share their beings with animals, creating hybrid forms; thus we talk about anthropomorphous animals, imaginary beasts, animals and fantastic cross breeding which build up various poetic visual metaphors. The figurative baroque in the dynamic and fragmented compositions of this print series, as well as the richness in the greys generated by the lines and the deep blacks, produce an ambiance of instability and chaos, specific to this stigmatized reality. The poetics of the grotesque, present in the narrative qualities of the prints, aims to generate in spectators their own interpretative stories. Finally, my current works are close to the oneiric productions which are far away from the limits of human logic." (from artist’s statement)

Víctor Manuel Hernández Castillo (1963. Mexico), graduated 1985. The National School of Plastics Arts, National University of Mexico (UNAM, Mexico City); 1991. magister studies in The Faculty of Graphics Arts of The Academy of Fine Arts (Cracow, Poland); 1991-1992. atelier-stypendium in the National School of Fine Arts (Paris). He had solo exhibitions in Mexico, Canada and Poland, and participated in a number of printmaking biennials and triennials (Japan, Korea, Canada, Poland, Russia, Germany, Serbia). He won several national and international awards: Special prize “Presse-Papier”, in the International Bienniale of Contemporary Print (2005. Trois Rivieres, Quebec, Canada); Winner of The First International Salon of Miniprint (2006. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada); The First International Triennial of Print (2011. Belgrade, Serbia). He works as professor at Faculty of Arts and Design, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).