Hector Madera: cutting and mixing in New York

Photo: courtesy of the artist.

 

Puerto Rican artist Hector Madera presented today various works in the exhibition CUT N’ MIX: Contemporary Collage at El Museo del Barrio in New York. The most noted pieces are 3 big collages with important personalities in the world of art like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí. With his distinctive collage techniques, he created wrestling-type masks covering their faces with tape. It gave the audience a sense of doubt as if this people may also had normal lives with their ups and downs like everybody else. It also gives the characters an underworld mystique like they are part of a gang.

 

Hector Madera was born in 1977 and he lives and works in New York. His works had always played with a focal point; the creation of ideas and and how they can be easily tossed out. Paper is the best way to explain this concept, thanks to its malleability and multiple uses and Hector uses every bit of it. An example of this can be seen in one of his newest exhibitions in Puerto Rico: Disgraceful Episodes, Grandiose Moments, Insignificant Achievements and Everything in Between, where he presented mini sculptures made by discarded papers with ball shapes, emulating the action of making a ball with a bunch of used papers and throwing them in the trash. His works has been presented in Spain, London and France and is currently represented by gallery Zawahra-Alejandro.

 

For more information about other Puerto Rican artists go to: Coleccion Castro Barreto