artnexus #33

The work of Arturo Herrera (Caracas, 1959, lives in New York) invites the spectator to meditate on the notion of perception and on certain images of childhood that remain in our memories. Ambiguity plays a key role in both these processes. The observer must reinvent, and create his or her own version of what is suggested but not seen; the pieces of the puzzle are there but we have to decide what to do with them and how to order them. The world of the unconscious once again occupies a large place, and it is there that we must search for the clues that will help us identify the suggestive images that refer to characters or objects from mass culture, for example, Disney figures. A few lines and minimal objects are the resources that Herrera uses in order to establish a relationship between the peculiar world of children and the adult's unconscious. Hence the importance of his work of absence rather than presence. Little remains of the innocence of childhood; his collages have their dark side, an adult gaze that is not without a certain perversion. 

IVONNE PINI