Hector Madera

Born in 1977 in Puerto Rico
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

In my latest body of work I see myself as a DJ, an arbiter, however instead of selecting, mixing, and playing music I collect particular objects from the everyday life that have an association with actuality. They include posters, flyers, magazine or newspaper pages, receipts, and letters to mention a few. Some of them are strategically altered and then mixed and remixed to create a sort of random diary that at the end becomes my canvas. The images and text superimposed are often taken from popular culture. The combination is not always apparent and provides a straightforward inconclusiveness that leads to a lack of ultimate meaning. The mixture of all these sources creates an ironic and often contradictory interpretation of the high and lows of the everyday life.

With my paper sculptures I try to help an object, a gesture that represents frustration or failure, that have been discarded, left behind, to become something beautiful, something grand.

Exhibitions (Selection)
2013 –  “Solo Objects” –  ARCO,  Madrid,  Spain
2013 – “Paper” –  Saatchi Gallery , London,  UK (forthcoming)
2012 – “Papo Tiza & Co” –  Roberto Paradise ,   San Juan,  Puerto Rico (individual)
2012 – “The Credentialist” –  curated by Elysia Borrower-Reeder, CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina
2012 – “The Way In” –  curated by Io Carrión, Banco Popular, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2012 – “Someone Else’s Dreams” –  curated by John Mckinnon,  Hyde Park Art Center , Chicago, Illinois
2011 – “A PERSON OF COLOR/ a mostly orange exhibition” –  curated by Jose Lerma, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2011 – “The Wrong Miracle” –  curated by Oscar Santillan,  NoMiNIMO Espacio Cultural, Guayaqui, Ecuador
2010 -“From NY with Love” –  curated by Glorimarta Linares, Don’t Projects, Paris, France
2010 – “I want to believe that something extraordinary can happen” –  curated by Lisa Bowmanand Sally Webster, Bowman/Bloom Gallery,  New York City,  New York