Lower East Side Printshop is pleased to announce publication of a new suite of ten print collages by Arturo Herrera. Titled Berlin Singers, the suite was created through the Printshop’s invitational Publishing Residency Program.
In Berlin Singers, Arturo Herrera juxtaposes pieces of found and hand drawn shapes with partially obscured images that evoke memory and recollection. Using techniques of fragmentation, splicing and re-contextualization, Herrera’s work provokes a multiplicity of associations. In this suite, he builds upon impressions of found copper plates whose random scratches and stains hold the memory of their prior contents. The stars of the work are singers that appeared in printed librettos by the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Photographed in the 1950’s at the peak of their fame, they assume a new role in Herrera’s work, where he uses their portraits as the basis to create an entirely new image. Typical for Herrera, their faces are almost completely covered by multiple layers of collage.
Throughout the ten compositions in the suite, Herrera explores a variety of mark making techniques, from crayon and pencil drawing to acrylic painting, marker, and tea stains. These are combined with variety of clippings from magazines and photographs. Each composition is completed with a line drawing screenprinted in transparent ink and one or more pieces of found paper glued directly onto the background, making each collage unique.
Printed in a limited edition of 20, each print collage measures 11.75 × 8.5 inches (30 × 21.3 cm) plate, and 18.13 × 14.50 inches (46 × 37 cm) total sheet.
The suite is currently available for viewing and purchase by appointment. Please contact the Printshop for more information.
ARTURO HERRERA (b. 1959, Caracas, Venezuela, lives and works in New York and Berlin, Germany) received a BA from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Herrera’s work includes collage, work on paper, sculpture, relief, wall painting, photography, and felt wall hangings.
Herrera has received many awards including, among others, a DAAD Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Pollock Krasner Grant. He has had solo exhibitions at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Dia Center for Arts, New York; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; and The Art Institute of Chicago, among others. His work appeared in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.
Arturo Herrera is represented in New York by Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
