NEW YORK, NY.- Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is presenting What else did I see?, an exhibition of new work by Rodrigo Hernández. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery.
Rodrigo Hernández works across drawing, painting, relief, sculpture and installation, to create a personal constellation of images. His fantastical visual lexicon is rooted in a wide and distinctive range of sources: from Mexican pre-Columbian art to Japanese prints, from European modernism to science and literature. As in dreams, disparate scenes and sights are interwoven in surreal images, inviting the viewer to imagine new possibilities and uncover mysterious connections. Simmering with the emotional power of subconscious memory, Hernández’s works are suffused with the attraction of the unknown. His touchstones of poetry and philosophy frame his work within a broader epistemological and psychological exploration.
For Hernández, an exhibition often begins with an anecdote or question, often inspired by literary and aesthetic texts, which are then translated into drawing. In this presentation, the viewer first encounters a drawing that acts as a diagram of the entire installation, an amalgamation of various sources, including poetry, philosophy, lived experiences, and dreams. A bronze sculpture lies on the floor, illuminated by a small lamp made by the artist. In the main gallery space, two bronze sculptures are presented resting on a hand-painted pedestal, alongside a hanging papier-mâché́ sculpture and a drawing. Intimately scaled, oil paintings on wood encircle the sculptures, prompting imaginative encounters between imagery and meaning, forms and their environments. In the smaller gallery space, hand-hammered brass sculptures with captivatingly smooth surfaces glow on the walls, translating the artist’s dream-like drawings into sculptural reliefs that convey the intimacy of the moments depicted.
Artist Text:
…
What else did I see?
As I begin to write this, it feels like I’m recounting a dream: scenes, characters and locations break apart, overlap, loop, entangle and reshuffle -blending past, present and future together. I’m looking through a blurry window, trying to catch with the eye figures running away. And still, this means something has now gained a presence and I’m aware of it. I’m wishing this work here might become the creature that holds things together, “as they, the things, keep their motion going, being reflected upon me” (Alice Notley)
First idea:
To make a portrait of time.
But where to start?
Before any idea, just a first feeling or impression:
A building in Lisbon. I am there with my father. We take two chairs and sit in the garden in front of it. The light of sunset spreads across the surface of a long white canopy. The shadows of trees shift quickly, then disappear.
Second impression:
We are sitting side by side on a plane to Bologna, sleeping. A word wakes me up: Kuma—Bear. My father. Japanese School in Mexico. Kengo, the architect of the building. An animal that sleeps half the year. Ku-ma.
Third:
The map of Paris. The way the city spirals inward, curling into the form of a snail. I find one in the garden of my studio, hold it on two fingers. I take a photo and then make a painting.
“Three anecdotes are enough to give the picture of a person” (Friederich Nietzsche)
I am trying to get a hold of something before it goes away forever. To notice a few details and give them value amid this constant flux of things, this perpetual flight of time.
Rodrigo Hernández (1983, Mexico City, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City. He studied at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2014) and obtained a BA at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe in 2013. Selected recent exhibitions of Hernández’s work include: Galería Municipal do Porto, Porto (2024); Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2024); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2024); Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen (2023); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2023); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2022); Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Medellín (2022); Pinchuk Art Center, Kyiv (2019); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2015); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2016); and Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht (2014).
Hernández was awarded with several international awards and grants, including the ArtExplora Paris (2025); Campari Art Prize, 2018; Cité International des Arts Paris, 2016; BBVA-Museo Carrillo Gil and Jóvenes Creadores, 2016; National Fund of the Arts-FONCA, 2016; Laurenz-Haus Stiftung, Basel and Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, 2015; Jan Van Eyck Academie Stipendium, 2013; Graduiertenstipendium Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, 2013; DAAD-Preis zur Jahresausstellung, AdbK Karlsruhe, 2012, among others.
His work is in the collections of: Kistefos Museum; Fundacion ARCO; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Espacio de Arte Contemporánea, Mexico City; Colección Diéresis, Guadalajara, Mexico; Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; 1800 Colleción, Tequila; AGI Verona, Italy; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; Kunstmuseum Sankt-Gallen, St. Gallen; Basel Stadt Kunstsammlung, Basel; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo / Fundación ARCO, Madrid; ABN AMRO Art Collection, Amsterdam; Rennie Collection, Vancouver; Villa Santo Sospir, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France; and Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, London.
*The title of the exhibition comes from a poem by Bernadette Mayer.
