Erie Arts & Culture is thrilled to announce that the agency will welcome Gonzalo Hernandez as the next visiting artist in residence. His residency will take place from October 26 until November 28.
Gonzalo's residency is part of a visiting artist residency program launched by Erie Arts & Culture in early 2020, in collaboration with Long Road Projects. Through this program, Erie Arts & Culture and Long Road Projects provide contemporary artists with dedicated time and space to reflect, research, and create new bodies of work – outside of their usual environments. This program also creates opportunities for new perspectives and creative processes to be shared, which in turn positively impacts the cultural and creative landscape in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
This visiting artist residency program is made possible through the generous support of a privately funded grant from The Erie Community Foundation.
Gonzalo Hernandez is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans several media to include painting and textiles. Gonzalo Hernandez lives and works between Kansas City and Lima. He holds a BA from Escuela de Artes Visuales Corriente Alterna and an MFA and MA from the Savannah College of Arts and Design in Fibers and Painting.
While in Erie, Gonzalo will explore new painting forms and methods, as well as printmaking and silkscreening. Gonzalo works by finding inspiration in everyday moments. Gonzalo is excited to become intimately acquainted with the history of Erie as well as local organizations and to reflect his discoveries in his work. He also plans to collaborate with Edinboro University's Art department.
His work has been exhibited internationally, with recent solo and group-exhibitions including "):)", SCAD Museum of Art, Opening November 19, 2020; "F.F.A. Corp" - Hen House Artist in Residency (2019); "Celebrating Georgia Artists of Hispanic/Latinx Origin" - Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgia (2019); "Java"- La Vitrina de la Oficina m20 Hotel Savoy Lima (2019); “A Paris a Lima” Alianza Francesa Lima (2015); ¨Sorry Not Sorry: posiciones, disposiciones y oposiciones¨- curated by Max Hernandez CCPUCP (2020); "Threaded" curated by Mark Newport and Maria-Elisa Heg , MCC Art Gallery(Arizona) (2019) and "The Artist as Muse¨ Gutstein Gallery curated by Ariella Wolens and Ben Tollefson (2019). He was also part of the first Chuquimarca Residency in Chicago, 2020 and also founder & director of Abrir galeria, an online gallery space created for young artists focused in South America.
Artist Statement:
"I believe that what I make consistently reflects where I am working or the situation in which I am living at the moment. I also explore the idea of labor and how we can value art as labor. The idea of what is to be an 'artist' is always resonating on my work too."
Are you interested in meeting Gonzalo or conducting a studio visit?
In the meantime, check out his work below or follow him on Instagram:
@hernandezgonzalo
Coveralls
Gonzalo Hernández, 2019
This is a group of seven overalls of the same size and shape, but each with a different digitally printed pattern on fabric. Prints are based on images and text from my own work and my experience at the distribution center I used to work with. After the design of the prints was digitally printed on fabric, the overalls were manufactured in Lima, Peru, in a factory that produces uniforms.
I was interested in this case to show the idea of an object and how this object identifies me within space. The use of the overalls or uniform as a garment that places you in a group or classifies you in a social group is part of the exercise of this work. Each jumpsuit is different, but in the end they have a general idea of the unification and representation of the individual. The use of different patterns accentuates the idea of uniformity and uniqueness at the same time.
