Juan Hernández Díaz
Bio: Juan Hernández Díaz (b. 1992) investigates balance, precariousness, risk, and temporality through the exploration of objects, installation, printmaking, and writing. His work reflects on the current historical moment, drawing upon his upbringing in South America by creating fragile and ephemeral forms of existence through improvisation and provisional solutions.
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Hernández Díaz earned his Bachelor of Architecture, Summa Cum Laude, from Universidad de los Andes and his MFA in Visual Arts at Columbia University School of the Arts. He lives and works in New York City.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: When I balance a glue jar, an umbrella, and a fluorescent tube, I build a precarious system on the border of collapse. This structure is a fragile and temporal form of existence that reflects how millions of South American people subsist. I come from a region that constantly negotiates equilibrium by resolving problems through resourceful improvisation and provisional solutions. Those strategies permeate every sphere of the social structure, from how governments rule to the way people self-construct their homes.
Through sculpture, installation, drawing, and writing, my work reflects on the forces that shape our realities. In this way, balance, suspension, gravity, and weight are metaphors for the precarious and vulnerable ways of being of the social system in my native Colombia. Consequently, I approach my materials and gestures with an ethos of economy: I work with objects that have been used and discarded, and I address them in a resourceful practical way. The results are ephemeral assemblages where things are used in forms they were not designed for. Here, they are activated to perform an action that frequently leads to accidents and instability, producing unexpected relations in flux.
Perishables or (Provisional Balance in Continuous Construction), (durational performance (24 days), mixed media installation, 2021)
First Year Exhibition
Glue-All: Extra Strong Formula, (220 x 96 x 84 in. Elmer's multipurpose glue, umbrella with hook handle, linear fluorescent bulb, electrical ballast, extension cord, U-shaped hand drill, jute rope, gaffer tape, 2021)
Open Studios
