Ana Mercedes Hoyos: Los Fragmentos

Bulbous and bodacious, animated and wet, Mercedes’ ‘still’ life’s are rife with authenticity, appearing between liminal settings of both plastic and alive.

In this series of paintings, Hoyos reinvents the common still life genre, transmuting passive objects into vivacious beings. Fruits of all fancy materialise with depth and flavour. The works are so hyperrealist, their juices might drip through the canvas at any moment, with a thickness of flesh highlighted by the light play of coloured chiaroscuro. Infused with a legacy that speaks clearly of both the pictorial edge of Pop and the fractured perspective of Cubism, they are glorious in their iridescent appeal. Yet, their precise shapes also feel ice-cold, their gleaming patina almost plastic, even virtual.

 These hints of consumerism and empty modernity are by no means an accident. Darkened interiors and ambiguous settings place the fruits at centre stage, with only lurking shadows to whisper their vendor's existence. Hoyos self-consciously confronts the history of her Colombian culture and indirectly points to the transatlantic trade that placed opulence over people. The series features a knife, scattered throughout, suspended and poised. It is a marker of territory and previous consumption.  

The work that gives the show its title, Los Fragmentos, explores the act of looking and being looked at. Sandia (Watermelon) 2001 features a plate brimming with these exotic bounties – yet look again, and it could be a boat upon a shore. The work features two canvases, one full of wet materiality – or to use the artist’s term ‘naturaleza viva’ (a play on the Spanish term for still life) – whilst the other is empty. Hoyos chooses to emphasise the fragmentation, featuring a gap between the two canvases.

Through these fractured perspectives and sharp-cut lines, we question what is synthetic, and what is authentic. And underneath these shimmering gleams, is there an emptiness?

Huxley Parlour Gallery, 3-5 Swallow Street, W1B 4DE

Duration: 1 December 2023 - 13 January 2024  Please see the gallery website for more information.

Recognition for photography Courtesy of Huxley Parlour Galleries