‘And thus, the oval emerged as a solution – a shape that offers no corners to hide behind.’ — David Morán Álvarez 

‘The world of Secundino Hernández is the result of a sophisticated generative architecture. “To balance out the composition, the corners had been accumulating a growing number of elements. They had become disproportionately important,” the artist explains. And thus, the oval emerged as a solution – a shape that offers no corners to hide behind.’

‘What happens if we assume that Spithere Crab, Myrtle Beach, and Newport Classic, are less in thrall to the conventions of easel painting (and traditional colour theory) and are acting more as if they were artefacts born of the symbolic decorative arts?’ — Max Andrews

Let’s include a paragraph on the early history of ellipse-shaped representational constraints and the semiotics of dispensing with spandrels? Would it not lend the works of Problematic Corners an unmistakably European disposition, as remnants of the ancien régime oval painting craze at the Paris Salon of 1765? Scions of Eustache Le Sueur’s ovate panels for the Cabinet de l’Amour in the Hôtel Lambert of 1645?… While what happens if we assume that Spithere Crab, Myrtle Beach, and Newport Classic, are less in thrall to the conventions of easel painting (and traditional colour theory) and are acting more as if they were artefacts born of the symbolic decorative arts? As if they’re heraldic achievements, bedizened Hernández coats of arms depicted on elliptical shields, where red would be ‘gules’, blue ‘azure’, and yellow ‘or’?

‘The oval is deeply ingrained in the Spanish imagination.’ — David Morán Álvarez 

The oval is deeply ingrained in the Spanish imagination. It takes on the form of the mystical mandorla that encloses the Pantocrátor at the heart of its own creation. The oval, therefore, commonly symbolised the sacred form of the cosmos until the Renaissance and Baroque periods, when it was stripped of its symbolic power to frame busts and human faces.

‘…should we ask: do these rags not represent everything that passes? The excesses of consumer society?’ — Max Andrews

As we note how the oddments of salvaged materials represent various provenances and construction methods, how discarded garment fragments exhibit inconsistent qualities of elasticity, grain run, and colour penetration, as well as how a multitude of textures arise from differences in the finishing of the constituent fabrics, should we ask: do these rags not represent everything that passes? The excesses of consumer society?

‘The success of these newest, paradoxical, and only seemingly-atypical ovals is to fit seamlessly into the pictorial taxonomy of Secundino Hernández.’ — David Morán Álvarez 

Through these cornerless paintings, the artist expands and complicates the genealogy referenced by the entirety of his work. Because it is this very notion of genealogy that allows for various references, discourses, practices and techniques to complement one another, as well as the painting cycles in which they are embodied. The success of these newest, paradoxical, and only seemingly-atypical ovals is to fit seamlessly into the pictorial taxonomy of Secundino Hernández.

‘Would it be problematic to conclude that each series of paintings is a way of going beyond your duty as an artist? In other words, are you not keenly aware of wanting to do more than is strictly necessary when something else would still be acceptable? Precisely not cutting corners, then?’ — Max Andrews

Let’s end with a question? Would it be problematic to conclude that each series of paintings is a way of going beyond your duty as an artist? In other words, are you not keenly aware of wanting to do more than is strictly necessary when something else would still be acceptable? Precisely not cutting corners, then? A method of fuga hacia adelante, fleeing forward? Painting in other words?

Secundino Hernández was born in 1975 in Madrid, where he currently lives and works. Solo institutional exhibitions of his work have been held at venues including Miettinen Collection, Berlin, Germany (2022); Insular Museum, Cabildo of La Palma, Spain (2021–2022); CAC Málaga, Spain (2018); Taidehalli Helsinki, Finland (2018); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France (2014).

The artist has also participated in institutional group exhibitions including Entre los ojos el deseo, Olivia Arauna Collection, Alcobendas Art Center, Madrid, Spain (2024); Extraordinary Form, Miettinen Collection, 2000s-Present, Salon Dahlmann, Berlin, Germany (2024); The lens within your heart, Takeuchi Collection, What Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2023); Pintura. Una renovación permanente, Patio Herreriano Museum, Valladolid, Spain (2021); The Art Show, Art of the New Millennium, Taguchi Art Collection, Japan (2017); Summer Exhibition 2017, Royal Academy, London, UK (2017); Abstract Painting Now, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2017); Alone Together, Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami, USA (2013); Berlin Status 1, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2012); and Berlin Klondyke 2011, Art Center Los Angeles, USA (2011).

His work is in numerous institutional and private collections, including Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; Montenmedio Contemporánea Foundation, Cádiz, Spain; Friedrichs Collection, Bonn, Germany; Jorge Pérez Collection, Miami, USA; Masaveu Foundation, Madrid, Spain; Foundation 20/21 Collection, La Palma, Spain; Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA; Helga de Alvear Foundation, Cáceres, Spain; Kunstdepot Göschenen, Switzerland; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK; North Carolina Museum, USA; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China; Zabludowicz Collection, Sarvisalo, Finland.