Federico Herrero, «When color becomes form»,  Installation View

In our current Bulletin you will find the new Podcast with the artist Federico Herrero. We talked to him about his creative process and the lithograph Uvita , which was created for the September edition of the exhibition «When color becomes form» We are pleased to present a podcast in English for the first time.

Federico Herrero's new lithograph was created in the spirit of his abstract painting. His practice takes up references to geometric-abstract painting and to the tradition of the murales of Central and Latin America, even if it is aesthetically quite clearly separated from them. The color fields and mysterious landscapes and figures reveal a fascination for the blurring of boundaries by merging into each other and forming an organic symbiosis.

Federico Herrero, Uvita, 2020, 7-color lithography

For the first time Herrero has created a lithograph in the style of his painting for the Edition VFO. It is not – as is typical of his monotypes, four of which are shown in the exhibition – minimalist color interventions, but rather seven rich colors that the artist used to illustrate the spirit of his painting. The title «Uvita» refers to a place on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, a rainforest covered hill facing the sea, reflecting on shallow water and, according to the artist, a great place to swim. The new lithograph is a portrait of this place, the mountain seen as volume and as sound, oscillating between the point of view of memory and a constantly changing relationship with the landscape, perhaps even the journey to get there, where all this information is translated into forms, a dialogue between urban structures and natural equilibrium; the artist continues.

Federico Herreros, found paintings ,  which the artist finds and photographs in everyday life, serve him as inspiration for his works, (Foto: Federico Herrero)

The color-charged layers and topographical elements are often created as site-specific, ephemeral works. For Herrero it is important that his art brings together people from different parts of society and that it integrates artistic creation into everyday life. In his interventions at the Venice Biennale in 2001, the Havana Biennale in 2003, the Museu de Arte Moderne de SÃaumlÃ;o Paolo (MAM) 2013 or the Pelican Estate in South London 2016, Herrero transformed everyday life; a playground, bridge structures, a swimming pool or facades, into paintings that are integrated into the cityscape from above or from afar as artistic interventions.

Federico Herrero at MAM Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Panorama 33: Formas únicas da continuidade no espaço, (Foto: Federico Herrero)

Federico Herrero's site-specific installation for the MAM São Paulo, (Foto: Lisette Legnado)

Federico Herrero has exhibited at numerous international biennials and was awarded the prize for the best young artist at the 2001 Venice Biennial by Harald Szeemann. His solo exhibitions have been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, the Kunstverein Freiburg and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. The retrospective of the artist «Barreras Blandas» will be shown at the National Museum of Costa Rica since August 4, 2020.

"Barreras Blandas" at the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, (Foto: Federico Herrero)

Federico Herrero, «When color becomes form»,  Installation view