Biography
Born 1972, Mexico City, Mexico/Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico
Jonathan Hernandez’s collages are meticulous abstract designs built from the ubiquitous press photographs that Hernandez has been extracting from public media as part of an ongoing archive. In an interaction he describes as “ping-pong,” Hernandez juxtaposes images that celebrate victory alongside those that bear witness to atrocity—celebrities are next to victims of violence, expressions of euphoria are enmeshed with those of despair, like the fusion that might be said to characterize the current moment.
Hernandez received his degree in visual arts from the École Nationale d’Administration Publique and The National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1997. He studied architecture at the University of Montreal in 1991–92. Solo exhibitions of Hernandez’s work include Postpreterito, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City (2006); Ven Vaiven, La Caja Negra, Madrid, Spain (2006);Trafago, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2004); Bon Voyage, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2003); and Travelling Without Moving, Galería del Aeropuerto de Ciudad de México, México (2002).
Selected group exhibitions include The Exotic Journey Ends, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw, Poland (2006); Metro of Pictures, The Moore Space, Miami (2006); 9th Bienal de la Habana, Cuba (2006); En Algun lugar alguien esta viajando furiosamente hacia ti, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2005); and Farsities: Urban Crisis and Domestic Symptoms in Recent Contemporary Art, at the San Diego Museum of Art, California (2005).
