Published in the catalogue Full of paint, Spanish Cultural Centre, Mexico, 2003

Full of paint.

            

From afterlife to the kitchen: a parade of emblematic animals, great spirits and mischievous beings. As if all things were inhabited by souls. We are in front of a close world, because it is tactile, but strange because it is occupied by others. Everyday things reveal (at the same time as they hide) a sort of boiling life. What is a house for Diego Arango, for Sergio Hernández is a town. A devil with the Colombian is a skull with the Mexican. One's animal looks like a "nahual" of the other. We must avoid to think that the work is banal because of its recreational nature, ease is a way to deal with those powers difficult to understand but accessible to intuition.

Although the legacy of Latin American traditions and beliefs is obvious, we don't resort to a romantic mysticism. The images by Arango and Hernández take root in popular culture, and therefore drink from attitudes more related to everyday's life and the beliefs adapted to every little thing. It wouldn't be fair either to reduce this works to naive painting, even if it's an adjective related to bright colours, simple compositions and spontaneity. We try to open possibilities and to see ourselves in our contradictions, our powers and our shortages, in a world that sorrounds us but to which we also give shape and colour...

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