Arturo Herrera applies modernist strategies of fragmentation and repetition in work that confronts the legacy of abstraction with the art of collage. For ‘Fare un giro’, the artist has chosen to activate the Supernova space on Piazza di S. Maria in Trastevere in Rome with a focused selection of serial and individual works that combine past and present, and emphasize the physicality of materials both within and around the works themselves.

The subtle juxtaposition of realities in Herrera’s visual language are drawn from his extraordinary archive of found imagery. Two series on view for the first time in this exhibition were produced during the artist’s residency at the American Academy in Rome between September and November, 2023. ‘Fare un giro’, which translates loosely to ‘going for a wander,’ references Italian sites and cities in a presentation that is specific to space and place. Within the installation, photographic reproductions of ancient statuary and Etruscan tombs collide with a magnified image of the Gazzetta dello Sport – the daily newspaper with sports coverage that is instantly recognizable for its pink pages and has the largest readership in Italy.

Herrera’s works span from miniature to monumental, and from flat surfaces in traditional collages to dimensional sculptural compositions and assemblages. Found objects are incorporated into his forms in works such as ‘Bang and Untitled’, a large monochromatic sheet of cut felt that falls from the wall. “There is an interplay between the found object and its link to everyday cultural sources that reflects the contaminated aspect of today‘s abstraction” explains Herrera.

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