Galleries by Manuel Hernandez

• Traces of Humanity in Nature — Traces of Humanity in Nature exhibit explore how artist from China and India use nature and landscape to represent human identity, memory, experience, and voices. These selected artworks present more than just nature; rather, it presents mountains, animals, seeds, and physical spaces that carry cultural meaning and oppression. A few artists will place human figures directly on a landscape while others will add human presence through symbols, sculptures, handmade objects, or voices. The exhibit will begin with a traditional Chinese landscape known as Travelers Among Mountains and Streams. The painting captures nature at its finest with a space for spiritual reflection and humanities place in a much larger world. All while transitioning into artwork that spans between different mediums, time periods, cultural context, all while focusing on identity, political history, and commination. Additionally, they use the human presence to show that we have power whether it is through memory, society, oppression, and nature. "Tradition is only a readymade. It's for us to make a new gesture — to use it as a reference, more as a starting point than conclusion” (Japantimes). This quote is from Ai Weiwei in an article titled “Escape from propaganda,” and he is showing that these cultural traditions are treated in a fixed manner, making it seem unchangeable. Instead, these cultural traditions are served as a foundation for reinterpretation and can be given a new meaning by each new generation. This quote serves as a connection to this exhibit because each selected artwork engages with cultural tradition, history, and human experience. Fan Kuan’s artwork reflects Chinese tradition about humanity's relationship with nature. Ai Weiwei, Zhanf Huan, and Shilpa Gupta artworks revisit cultural events, landscapes, symbols, and memories to address modern day concerns that may not have existed back then. Thus, showing that these artworks demonstrate that traditions are continuously reinterpreted rather than being preserved and fixed. This exhibit will start with a traditional Chinese landscape painting that date back all the way to the Northern Song dynasty. Travelers Among Mountains and Streams dives into the idea of balance, and spiritual harmony by showing humanity’s small place within nature. Then we will shift towards a reinterpretation large scale sculpture made up of bronze. The Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is inspired by the original 12 sculpture that was once a part of a fountain in Beijing, China. Though they were looted during the second opium war, only seven of them survived. The artist Ai Weiwei made the 12 sculptures and reimagined the missing five which questioned cultural history as it may have some reconstructed history. Ai Weiwei second appearance comes from his Sunflower Seed art as it focuses on collective identities of millions of individuals as they were each represented by a handcrafted porcelain seed. These seeds symbolize individuality within a society. Then we will transition into a performance act caught in photograph that brings the physical body of humans into nature. To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain presents multiple artists stacking themselves on a mountain to alter nature itself only for a moment. The final artwork for this exhibit will examine will explore exclusion and communication. For, In your Tongue, I Cannot Fit will be the concluding artwork where we shift towards social and political structures as it questions identity, voice, and oppression. (9 views)