Federico Herrero - Volume

Federico Herrero's exhibition of paintings and sculptures at James Cohan Gallery titled Volume, pop with bold and yet soft patches and shapes of color that draw you in from the street, desiring to enter into the works. The exhibition consists of large to mural size oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, made up of round edged, bulbous flat shapes overlapping and intermingling with one another.  The shapes range from cool magentas, blues, and purples to warmer reds, greens and yellows. Yet no one color feels particularly abrasive, as if each color was tinted with a bit of white or black, softening the boldness of the forms with a pastel undertone. Coming closer to the paintings make the viewer realize that smaller, even microscopic marks and versions of the larger shapes seem to swim in-between and amongst the  forms, making you feel as if you're looking down at an aerial view of a city with people moving in-between buildings. Breaking up the paintings are cast concrete forms, with sections painted in the same flat pastel tones as the canvas works. The sculptures feel like more hard-edged referential versions of the paintings, the forms of which reference both public area and interior architectural space. Herrero states how the shapes examine his crossover of influences from urban environment to natural forms. Standing in front of Herrero's Visita, 2019, feels like you're moving down a bustling city market path, with each vendor's sign wiped of any information.