Jose Antonio Hernandez-Diez (1964,

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

) is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n-born artist who works with

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

. Hernandez-Diez currently lives and works in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Biography

Jose Antonio Hernandez-Diez studied at el Centro de Formación Cinematográfica de Caracas. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including the 2003 Venice Bienniale and the 1999

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896, in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established ...

. Since 1991, Hernandez-Diez has had solo exhibitions of his work in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

, among many others. Hernández-Díez also had a major retrospective exhibition that travelled to a number of museums including the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...

SITE Santa Fe
and the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art,

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach, Florida, West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach, Florida, ...

from 2002 to 2003. Hernández-Díez is part of a new generation of Venezuelan artists who emerged in the late 1980s. He uses "street" materials such as skateboards, sneakers, record players and other audio equipment and bicycles in order to develop a personal iconography centered on familiar, often domestic, objects. The ordinary is made extraordinary through Hernández-Díez's provocative, darkly humorous use of material and scale. He manipulates the objects, often by physically reconfiguring them in such a way that invests the quotidian with philosophical and emotional resonance. Elements from his Venezuelan childhood are combined with those that reference a more global pop culture.

References

External links

Hernández-Díez at Gering & López Gallery

Hernández-Díez at FL - Wizard Gallery
Artists from Caracas Venezuelan expatriates in Spain Venezuelan sculptors Living people 1964 births {{Venezuela-sculptor-stub