Opener 29 Arturo Herrera: Day Before

Installation view, Arturo Herrera: Day Before, Tang Teaching Museum, 2015

Berlin-based artist Arturo Herrera’s body of work includes cut paper collages, felt sculptures, drawings, paintings, wall installations, and works on found objects such as canvas tote bags, aluminum litho plates, and books. Much of Herrera’s work uses bold colors and familiar forms, referencing the language of abstraction and popular culture. His art proposes a multiplicity of readings while inviting a reinterpretation of modes of representation and seeing.

Opener 29: Arturo Herrera — Day Before features 100 new paintings from Herrera’s recent body of abstract paintings, in which he uses a variety of media to alter and abstract small books that he carefully selects from flea markets.

For some works, he silkscreens lines and patterns, or he stencils shapes from both his own drawings and found sources. With others, he paints across the cover, allowing the medium to drip over the edges and down the pages, sealing the book shut. Rendering the books useless in terms of their original purpose, Herrera explores the objecthood of his paintings and the tension between abstraction and legibility. For this show, Herrera is creating a site-specific installation.

Opener 29: Arturo Herrera — Day Before is organized by Dayton Director Ian Berry in collaboration with the artist. The Opener series is supported by New York State Council on the Arts, Overbrook Foundation, Beverly Beatson Grossman ‘58, and Friends of the Tang.