Secundino Hernández

One of the most dynamic painters of his generation, Secundino Hernández is celebrated for a spirited enquiry into the language, history and enduring potential of abstraction. For Hernández, painting is both a physical and cerebral activity, a conduit for intellectual and philosophical enquiry. Whether employing strong linear elements, by turns painterly or calligraphic, or rich bursts of colour, his work corrals diverse influences within a signature abstract language. Often collapsing traditional distinctions and hierarchies, in Hernández’s hands a monochrome might also be an action painting, while an action painting might, on closer inspection, reveal itself to be an almost archaeological excavation of the picture plane.

In keeping with the breadth of his influences, Hernández employs a variety of tools and techniques. While works such as the artist’s celebrated ‘palette' paintings are the result of conspicuous addition, his ‘wash’ canvases, by contrast, are produced by layering and removing paint with a heavy-duty pressure washer. Almost archaeological in nature, this method involves digging through pigment to expose the canvas beneath, a process that the artist associates with sculptural carving. His stitched works, meanwhile, add a further dimension to the linear and structural concerns that underpin his work and feed into an ongoing dialogue around processes of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction.

About the Artist

Secundino Hernández was born in 1975 in Madrid, where he currently lives and works.

Solo exhibitions of his work have recently been presented at MUSAC, Museum and Contemporary Art Center of Castilla y León, Spain (2025); Friedrichs Foundation, Weidingen, Germany (2025); Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid, Spain (2025); Skarstedt Gallery, New York, USA (2024); Victoria Miro, London, UK (2024); Nino Mier, Los Angeles, USA (2024); Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2023); Heinrich Ehrhardt, Madrid, Spain (2023); Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt, Germany (2023); Victoria Miro, London, UK (2022); Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto, Portugal (2022); Miettinen Collection, Berlin, Germany (2022); The Insular Museum, Cabildo of La Palma, Spain (2021-22); Vortic Collect Online (Victoria Miro, 2020); Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas, USA (2019); Victoria Miro, Venice, Italy (2019); CAC Málaga, Spain (2018); Taidehalli Helsinki, Finland (2018); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2015); Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France (2014); and Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland (2014).

The artist has also participated in group shows including MINEBANE! Contemporary Art - The Taguchi Art Collection, Akita Museum of Art and Akita Senshu Museum of Art, Akita, Japan (2025); Entre los ojos el deseo, Olivia Arauna Collection, Alcobendas Art Center, Madrid, Spain (2024); Extraordinary Form, Miettinen Collection, 2000s-Present, Salon Dhalmann, Berlin, Germany (2024); The lens within your heart, Takeuchi Collection, What Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2023); Painters Paint Paintings: La Versión, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, USA (2022); Foreign Affairs, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2022); Spanish and International Artists, Galeria Daniel Cardani, Madrid, Spain (2019); Spain Over the Rainbow, Mirat, Madrid, Spain (2019); Lush Strokes - Phantom Forms, Galerie Isa, Mumbai, India (2018); 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, Krems, Austria (2017); Das Allerletze Prof. Winkler Stipendium at Kunstverein Weiden, Austria (2013); Alone Together at the Rubell Family Collection / Contemporary Arts Foundation, Miami, USA (2013); Dialogos DKV - Patio Herreriano at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Espanol, Valladolid, Spain (2013); Berlin Status 1 at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (2012) and Berlin Klondyke 2011 at 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.