Arnulfo Hernandez -

The two strongest art themes in my exhibition are contrast and harmony. In my art, I incorporate contrast in textures, color types, and by physically separating one part of the piece from the canvas. Starting this body of work I knew I wanted to make abstract art because I love how I can create contrast and harmony with shapes and colors.

The main piece in my body of work is “Primary”. This piece is a recreation of a work I made last year however that piece was created pretty fast and as a result, the lines were not as defined and were a bit sloppy. I still loved the piece because I liked how it made the viewer feel a sense of harmony. I also like how much contrast is in the piece because I used primary colors which all have a lot of contrast within them. The viewer’s eyes are not drawn to a certain part of the piece but are instead left to wander the piece and appreciate different parts of it separately. The two squares in the corners refocus the viewer’s attention into the center however because there is no focal point, the viewer’s attention begins to wander again. The sense of harmony is created with the shapes of similar sizes. Each color has one shape that is similar to it. There are the same amount of shapes for each color which helps create this effect. The black border around the piece helps make the piece more establishing and prominent within my works.

This year I wanted to make my works play with the feeling of imperfection. Many of my works have imperfections like tears or stuff meant to look like stains however these parts of my pieces give them a sense of completion. This central piece is what could be called the goal however we always end up with imperfections in what we do and most of the time it ends up making what we do better.

It is for this reason that “Primary” is the central piece in my exhibition. The way my exhibition is laid outputs emphasis on the central piece when you’re close to it however because of its size, the six surrounding pieces overpower it. This could be symbolic of how our work with imperfection often stands out from the rest and many times it can be better than your perfect work. The way the works are laid out also has a sense of balance and contrast to them. There are two works with neon colors and two works with a muted color palette. These are put on opposite sides of the central piece in my exhibition.

In my own opinion, “Melt” is the strongest piece in my exhibition. “Melt has the most contrasting layers out of all of my works. The color palette I used had a mix of neon colors and muted colors. The outside of the painting, the melting portion, is made up of neon colors on the top and the bottom and in the middle to balance it out and give some cohesiveness I added a color that is vibrant but not as muted. In the middle, I used a muted color palette and black and white to create contrast within the middle. The black and white stripes draw the viewer’s attention to the center of the piece. It also contrasts the baby blue background because it’s a very prominent and vibrant color combination. When this part of the piece is put with the rest of the melting piece even more contrast is created. The textures contrast each other because the outside of the piece has a lot of curves and the center of the piece has very clean straight lines.

In my work, I try to see in what ways I can manipulate the canvas and the colors to create varying textures and effects to create a lot of contrast but maintain the element of harmony and balance.