Group Show at Soho20

I'll be in this upcoming group exhibition with several exquisite artists at Soho20 Gallery.

A Thrilling Offer!

I've been invited to attend the Vermont Studio Center in April 2011 for a one month artist residency!  The Review Committee has recommended me for an Artist's Grant and a Work Exchange Award.  I'm so thrilled that I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight - oh Happy News!!!

Exhibition Postpartum

Removing my name and exhibition title: a mourning practice.  

I didn't realize that the close of my exhibition would come with a wave of depression; a sense of loss, displacement and heartbreak.  I'd spent the last year creating an intimate body of work that had previously existed in the privacy and security of my home studio, then spent weeks preparing for the exhibition itself; exposed that intimate body of work to the public for nearly four (short) weeks, then took everything down and put it all to rest.  Three pieces were sold - a wonderful transaction but one that means I hand over pieces of myself.

And now to figure out what comes next; I feel immobilized and unmotivated.  Everything I'd been putting off because the exhibition was my priority now needs to be faced (finding a job is on the top of that list) and all the while I want to keep up the pre-show momentum I had built.  But I don't know how or where to start and am even questioning everything I'm asking myself to do.  

I googled "post-exhibition blues" and found this article on ArtistPortfolio.net, among other blog entries and articles.  I'm glad to know now that what I've been experiencing is normal.

CALLING ALL ARTISTS! STUDIO RESIDENCY CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Click on image to view larger version:

APPLY HERE!

Exploding Heart installation photos have been posted on my blog, http://explodingheartwork.blogspot.com/, created specifically for the exhibition at Soho20 Gallery Chelsea. 

"Exploding Heart" Opening Reception

  

 

I can't thank enough all who came out to celebrate with me.  Thank you also to all those who wished they could be there but sent me their love and best wishes.  And thank you to Jessica Nilsen, Diane Habjan Matarese and Wen Wen Lin for taking these photos.   

Upcoming Exhibition at Soho20

I Would Rather Go Like This, 2009, mixed media on drafter’s vellum, 58 x 36 inches

For Immediate Release:

CARLA HERNANDEZ

Exploding Heart

SOHO20 Gallery Chelsea

547 West 27^th Street, Suite 301

New York, NY 10001

March 30 – April 24, 2010

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 1st, 6-8pm

SOHO2O Gallery Chelsea is pleased to announce the exhibition of new work by artist Carla Hernandez.  The exhibit features large-scale drawings and paintings on translucent vellum as well as small drawings on wood.

Exploding Heart is a visual colloquy traversing both heartache and happiness.

Central to Hernandez’s work is the dichotomy that the heart is an organ that circulates blood through the body yet also serves as an emotional metaphor.  Visceral reality combines with intuitive compulsion in her work as she seeks a sort of reconciliation. 

In the works Somewhere In There I Am and I Would Rather Go Like This, carefully rendered lines gather concentrically around bursts and folds of color.  In others works, a union of both plant and human anatomy can be seen as a metaphor for the physical and intellectual conundrum Hernandez dissects as problematic to human existence. 

Carla Hernandez was born in Newark, New Jersey and currently lives and works in New York.  She received her BA in Visual Art from Rutgers University in 1999.  A painter and performance artist, Hernandez has exhibited and performed in group shows at galleries and alternative spaces in New York and New Jersey, including Mason Gross School of the Arts Galleries, Kenkeleba Gallery and ABC No Rio.  She has been a member of Soho20 Gallery Chelsea since spring 2009.  This is her first exhibit at SOHO20 Gallery Chelsea.

For more information please contact gallery director Jenn Dierdorf at 212.367.8994 or soho20@verizon.net