Diango Hernández.
Olaismo 28 March - 28 April 2022
3:00 pm - 7:00 pm
@wizard_milan
Via Aurelio Saffi, 6. First Floor, Milan. Italy
WIZARD Milan is pleased to present “Olaismo”, a solo exhibition by Diango Hernández (Cuba, 1970).
Olaismo consists of twelve oil paintings and two polychrome metal sculptures. The common denominator that unites this entire series of new paintings is the presence of a semitransparent element that stands between the artist and his “reality”, transforming it – what the artist sees – into an imprecise and blurred image that is also extraordinarily rich in visual textures. The idea, later developed in the paintings, started from an image seen by the artist through the glass door of his apartment in Düsseldorf.
Each painted image is therefore what Diango Hernández sees from the glass door of his house; the works themselves function as that corrugated glass in Dusseldorf, which allows him to see precariously what is outside, showing him a magically altered vision of the reality. The paintings are the artist’s perception of these past two years in which our homes have become “the world”.
“These years of domestic confinement, due to the pandemic, brought me back "home" when I say home I mean to Cuba. When I was living in Havana I used to spent complete days without leaving home, drawing calmly, without anything interfering with the peace of my empty living room. When I went out I always went to stare at the sea, because I live very close to the Malecón. I used to go there especially in the winter months, when the sea of Havana “goes crazy” and collides with power against the Malecón wall, producing a very fine spray of salt water, which covers the city like a veil. On more than one occasion I thought that the Havana sea and its winter splashes were like a large corrugated glass; a semi-transparent and opaque object, through which I saw almost everything: the city, its people and even the horizon of the sea, which is nothing more than a portal to another world, a world so coveted by many Cubans.”
Diango Hernández began his artistic practice in Cuba in 1994 as co-founder of Ordo Amoris Cabinet, a group of artists and designers who have dedicated themselves to the production of design objects for home.
In 2003 he moved to Europe and he currently lives between Düsseldorf and Havana. His works have been exhibited in a solo show at the Kunsthalle in Basel (2006) and at the Neuer Aachener Kunstverein (2007). He participated in the Venice Biennale in 2005, in Sydney and São Paulo Biennale in 2006 and in Liverpool Biennale in 2010. His works were also exhibited at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Siegen (2009) and in 2010 two of his large installations were included in The New Décor exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London. In 2011/12 the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rovereto (MART) hosted a solo exhibition of Diango Hernandez at the Mostyn Museum in Wales. His works are part of prestigious collections such as the MoMA in New York, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne and other important private collections.
