Fernando Renes
27 Oct - 09 Dec 2011
FERNANDO RENES
Hay un agujero en el cubo
27 October - 9 December, 2011
Distrito 4 Contemporary Art Gallery has the pleasure of presenting new works of Fernando Renes . This is the third solo show at the gallery (2004-2007)
The work of the artist covers a big horizon of interests such as science, politics, economy, sexuality and evolution, but all of them seen through his personal “funnel”.
This Exhibition is titled after an infant North American song, Hay un agujero en el cubo –there is a hole in the bucket- and it is based on a dialogue between two characters named Henry and Liza. The song incorporated an infinite loop in which Henry has a bucket with a hole, Liza tells him that he has to fix it and for this purpose he needs a stick that has to be cut with an ax, but the ax has to be sharpened, the rock to sharpen it is dry and has to be wetted. Henry then asks Liza how to bring water to sharpen the ax and Liza answers “with the bucket”. This means that the only bucket available to bring water is the one with the hole, if it could hold water it wouldn ́t need to be repaired. This way of acting summarizes the way of working of the artist, he starts off with something “damaged” – this could very well be a our very own selves, it could be understood from a individual point of view or a collective view- that has to be repaired, there is a process to be followed and the result is having to be happy with the damaged bucket that we started off with, we have evidence of this process through the song, in our case the work presented by the artist in this occasion.
Hay un agujero en el cubo presents a large spectrum of drawings, photographs (it is the first time that the artist shows Works in this medium) and an animation, Manos a la obra, these Works are differientiated and come together as a whole because they inhabit the present, not because they try to catch it, but just because they are living in it. His drawings are a “being here and now”, without missing the past or waiting for the future. This type of “being” can be seen in Manos a la obra, the present happens between one frame and the other, when we think that we will never see that scene again, it comes back, following a mantra, copying a neon that talks about the eternal come back of the identical.
This Exhibition represents a return to the root of drawing, medium in which Renes has always worked, we see how the artist uses drawing to describe what surrounds him inventing new forms and possibilities, combining and mutating his nature, this could be the essence of Renes present work; we can see it for example in Juguetes pretorianos , a “portrait” of the last 11 presidents of the United States, or in Homenaje a la sandía , in which a watermelon appears to come up to float in a sea of pointed dunes. In other drawings it is more obvious the presence of humor, not always apart from a dark significance like in the work Discusión entre espermatozoides or in Poor Design. In other works we can see the influence of other artists, like in Bodegón 4, where we can observe the economy of elements of Morandi and the drama in the scenes of Zurbarán, or in Som lo que sembrem, where the artist continues with the tradition of social documentation seen in Goya ́s works.
The work of Renes is the heritage of an oriental tradition where there is no good or bad per se, but conceived as a whole, manifested in one way or another, we can appreciate this in drawings like Raft of Cannibals surrounded by Medusas, or in Todos somos luminosos. In this way we can describe Renes works like a residence in front of a generalized speech, directed and canned, as a brusque and naïf poetic, stuttered and objected, subtle and intelligent that asks us, it doesn ́t give answers, it only makes questions.
Fernando Renes (Covarrubias, Burgos 1970) has exhibited his work national and intenationally. Lately, we have been able to see his work in La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Mücsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest; Arts Santa Mónica, Barcelona; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires; Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida; Freies Museum, Berlin; Musac, Museo de arte contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara, Mexico; La Naval, Cartagena and in the Museo de arte moderno and contemporáneo of Santander.
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Hay un agujero en el cubo
27 October - 9 December, 2011
Distrito 4 Contemporary Art Gallery has the pleasure of presenting new works of Fernando Renes . This is the third solo show at the gallery (2004-2007)
The work of the artist covers a big horizon of interests such as science, politics, economy, sexuality and evolution, but all of them seen through his personal “funnel”.
This Exhibition is titled after an infant North American song, Hay un agujero en el cubo –there is a hole in the bucket- and it is based on a dialogue between two characters named Henry and Liza. The song incorporated an infinite loop in which Henry has a bucket with a hole, Liza tells him that he has to fix it and for this purpose he needs a stick that has to be cut with an ax, but the ax has to be sharpened, the rock to sharpen it is dry and has to be wetted. Henry then asks Liza how to bring water to sharpen the ax and Liza answers “with the bucket”. This means that the only bucket available to bring water is the one with the hole, if it could hold water it wouldn ́t need to be repaired. This way of acting summarizes the way of working of the artist, he starts off with something “damaged” – this could very well be a our very own selves, it could be understood from a individual point of view or a collective view- that has to be repaired, there is a process to be followed and the result is having to be happy with the damaged bucket that we started off with, we have evidence of this process through the song, in our case the work presented by the artist in this occasion.
Hay un agujero en el cubo presents a large spectrum of drawings, photographs (it is the first time that the artist shows Works in this medium) and an animation, Manos a la obra, these Works are differientiated and come together as a whole because they inhabit the present, not because they try to catch it, but just because they are living in it. His drawings are a “being here and now”, without missing the past or waiting for the future. This type of “being” can be seen in Manos a la obra, the present happens between one frame and the other, when we think that we will never see that scene again, it comes back, following a mantra, copying a neon that talks about the eternal come back of the identical.
This Exhibition represents a return to the root of drawing, medium in which Renes has always worked, we see how the artist uses drawing to describe what surrounds him inventing new forms and possibilities, combining and mutating his nature, this could be the essence of Renes present work; we can see it for example in Juguetes pretorianos , a “portrait” of the last 11 presidents of the United States, or in Homenaje a la sandía , in which a watermelon appears to come up to float in a sea of pointed dunes. In other drawings it is more obvious the presence of humor, not always apart from a dark significance like in the work Discusión entre espermatozoides or in Poor Design. In other works we can see the influence of other artists, like in Bodegón 4, where we can observe the economy of elements of Morandi and the drama in the scenes of Zurbarán, or in Som lo que sembrem, where the artist continues with the tradition of social documentation seen in Goya ́s works.
The work of Renes is the heritage of an oriental tradition where there is no good or bad per se, but conceived as a whole, manifested in one way or another, we can appreciate this in drawings like Raft of Cannibals surrounded by Medusas, or in Todos somos luminosos. In this way we can describe Renes works like a residence in front of a generalized speech, directed and canned, as a brusque and naïf poetic, stuttered and objected, subtle and intelligent that asks us, it doesn ́t give answers, it only makes questions.
Fernando Renes (Covarrubias, Burgos 1970) has exhibited his work national and intenationally. Lately, we have been able to see his work in La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Mücsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest; Arts Santa Mónica, Barcelona; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires; Centre d’Art La Panera, Lleida; Freies Museum, Berlin; Musac, Museo de arte contemporáneo de Castilla y León; Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara, Mexico; La Naval, Cartagena and in the Museo de arte moderno and contemporáneo of Santander.
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.