Albano Hernández: Chop! Chop! Chop!
Past exhibition
Overview
"My latest works are a personal diary through upcycled materials."
Pi Artworks London is delighted to present Albano Hernández’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, Chop! Chop! Chop! following his graduation from the Royal College of Art in 2022. Featuring a large-scale mural and a variety of rich, textural paintings, this exhibition centres on notions of perception, value and productivity, all of which underpin Albano’s practice.
Winner of the Hine painting prize in 2022, Albano has developed his ‘meta-painting’ process over the last two years. The artist explores and challenges the potential of the medium itself, asking questions of commodification, consumption and the politics of art production. Inspired in the wake of Jeffrey Deitch’s seminal 2012 exhibition The Painting Factory, Albano began focusing on the ‘brushstroke’, which he creates from air-dry clay and studio waste. which forces us to examine our perception of what ‘painting’ is today, how matter is presented in the world, and how consumption processes infiltrate all aspects of our lives.
Growing up in Ávila, a region of Spain where meat consumption and industry plays a significant role in the culture and economy, led Albano to focus on the aesthetics that meat generates as a commodity. He has obsessive thoughts about the processes of fragmentation, packing, distribution and exposure of animal bodies under the meat label, with a focus on processed meat and the simulacrum of fake meat. Manipulation of materiality interest the artist and thus Albano employs an industrial meat-slicer to fragment his own brushstrokes in this body of work, sometimes then vacuum-packing his paintings to create works reminiscent of packeted supermarket meat.
Waste also plays an equally significant role in Albano’s practice, with the artist initially repurposing old studio materials in his paintings to create a circular economy of both physical production and conceptual dialogues between present and past creations. His process involves meticulous application of brushstrokes, and his larger scale works often take several months to complete.
By incorporating waste from his everyday life, Albano draws attention to issues of sustainability and environmentally conscious production as well as to the dichotomy between the values we place on ‘waste’ vs that of ‘fine art.’ Chop-Chop-Chop! centres on a gesture as simple as it is complex, it is an invitation to reflect on the characteristics that define the industrial world we inhabit.
Winner of the Hine painting prize in 2022, Albano has developed his ‘meta-painting’ process over the last two years. The artist explores and challenges the potential of the medium itself, asking questions of commodification, consumption and the politics of art production. Inspired in the wake of Jeffrey Deitch’s seminal 2012 exhibition The Painting Factory, Albano began focusing on the ‘brushstroke’, which he creates from air-dry clay and studio waste. which forces us to examine our perception of what ‘painting’ is today, how matter is presented in the world, and how consumption processes infiltrate all aspects of our lives.
Growing up in Ávila, a region of Spain where meat consumption and industry plays a significant role in the culture and economy, led Albano to focus on the aesthetics that meat generates as a commodity. He has obsessive thoughts about the processes of fragmentation, packing, distribution and exposure of animal bodies under the meat label, with a focus on processed meat and the simulacrum of fake meat. Manipulation of materiality interest the artist and thus Albano employs an industrial meat-slicer to fragment his own brushstrokes in this body of work, sometimes then vacuum-packing his paintings to create works reminiscent of packeted supermarket meat.
Waste also plays an equally significant role in Albano’s practice, with the artist initially repurposing old studio materials in his paintings to create a circular economy of both physical production and conceptual dialogues between present and past creations. His process involves meticulous application of brushstrokes, and his larger scale works often take several months to complete.
By incorporating waste from his everyday life, Albano draws attention to issues of sustainability and environmentally conscious production as well as to the dichotomy between the values we place on ‘waste’ vs that of ‘fine art.’ Chop-Chop-Chop! centres on a gesture as simple as it is complex, it is an invitation to reflect on the characteristics that define the industrial world we inhabit.
Works
Installation Views
