José Antonio Hernández-Diez
Born 1964, Caracas, Venezuela
Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain, and Caracas

Hernández-Diez’s sculpture in the form of an enlarged dish drainer supporting acrylic fingernails cut to the artist’s height resonates with references to the Catholic and patriarchal culture of Venezuela, Hernández-Diez’s native country. The dish drainer, itself a symbol of cleanliness, echoes the Christian rite of absolution, in which the body is washed as a metaphor for the soul being cleansed of sin, including the sin of vanity, signified here by the fake fingernails. Hernández-Diez underscores through this work the contradictions present in a patriarchal culture that prides itself on its beautiful women. In El Ceibó (The Sideboard), a videotaped image installed in a generic cabinet shows the artist obsessively packing, unpacking, and repacking in a ritualistic display of dispossession and exile that comments on the migratory nature of our time.

José Antonio Hernández-Diez, Untitled, 1999, wood and acrylic, installation dimensions variable (installation view)

José Antonio Hernández-Diez’s work has been presented in international exhibitions, including Bienal de La Habana (1994); 1st Kwangju Biennale (1995); XXIII Bienal de São Paulo (1996); and In Site San Diego 1997, San Diego and Tijuana (1997). His work has been included in museum shows such as Cocido y Crudo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (1994); Sin Fronteras, Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas (1996); The Garden of Forking Paths, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen (1998), which traveled to Edsvik konst och kultur, Stockholm, Helsinki City Art Museum, and Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Ålborg (1999); Amnesia, Track 16 Gallery and Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, California (1998), which traveled to Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá; and A vueltas con los Sentidos, Casa de América, Madrid (1999). Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented since 1991, including Galeria Camargo Vilaça, São Paulo (1995); Sandra Gering Gallery, New York (1995, 1996); Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid (1997); and Sala Mendoza, Caracas (1998).

Education
Centro de Formación Cinematográfica de Caracas

Selected Further Reading
Track 16 Gallery and Christopher Grimes Gallery, Santa Monica, California. Amnesia (1998). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Adriano Pedrosa, Charles Merewether, Dan Cameron, and Monica Amor.

Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela. José Antonio Hernández-Diez (1998). Exhibition catalogue, text by Carlota Alvarez-Basso.

Fuenmayor, Jesœs. “José Antonio Hernández-Diez.” Poliester, no. 7 (fall 1997): 48-51.

Ramirez, Yasmin. “José Antonio Hernández-Diez at Sandra Gering.” Art in America 83, no. 9 (September 1995): 112-13.

Vaisman, Meyer. “Openings: José Antonio Hernández-Diez.” Artforum 31, no. 4 (April 1992): 92.