Puerta Roja, the first dedicated Latin art dealer in Hong Kong, is delighted to celebrate the year of the Rabbit in partnership with Damina Gallery, presenting “animal: the power of nature”, by Mexican artist Fernanda Brunet. In her new series, Fernanda furthers her now trademark dramatic animal representations, by exploring less known animal symbolism shared by Mexican and Chinese ancient cultures.
Fernanda Brunet’s work is well known for her intense, vibrant and organic pop-coloured visual art. Although some academics may classify her work as a trend from the 1990s known as Mexican ‘orientalism’, her subject matters are diverse, and she draws inspiration from natural elements as well as pop culture themes. Whilst her early swirls and explosions were reminiscent of Japanese comics and her flowers of psychedelic sixties art, her most recent animal representations use the global intensity of nature as the channel for an emotionally charged artistic surge. As Fernanda puts it “Painting is simply a necessity”.
Fernanda’s use of rich colours and choice of undoubtedly aesthetic and symbolically powerful animals and flowers create an immediate impression. Her paintings are dynamic hybrid representations - many times unconscious - of allegories and symbolic imagery from around the world, making them feel, strangely, both foreign and familiar.
For her first solo show in Hong Kong, Fernanda has explored further links between Mexico and China in addition to her now trademark images of zebras, tigers and lions. “animal” present us with images of rabbits – a sign shared by ancient Chinese and Mexican astrology-, butterflies and even bats -an animal demonised in the west but with a strong image in Latin America and China, where the phonetic for bat is ‘Fu' or Luck.
Exploring a bit deeper, we find the true universal appeal of Fernanda’s work. Zoological, allegoric and representational accuracy immediately become of secondary importance to the feelings that are evoked by each of her works. Power, struggle, dignity, maternal instinct, anger, love, all emanate from her canvases and swirl in clouds and explosions of colour and emotion.
About Fernanda Brunet
Fernanda Brunet was born in Mexico City in 1963. She studied at the National School of Fine Arts and since 1997 has exhibited across Mexico, Europe and the USA. For over a decade, she has shown her works in New York where she has a loyal following. Fernanda has received multiple awards and is regularly included in museum shows as one of the best representatives of contemporary Latin American art. During 2010, Fernanda was focused on two major exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art and Museo del Chopo in Mexico.
Fernanda’s work is part of major Mexican and international museum and private collections, including the Weisman Foundation and the San Diego Museum of Art in California; the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation and British American Tabaco collection; and, the Jumex Collection, the so-called ‘Saatchi collection for contemporary Latin art’ and one of the largest in the world. Her work has been included in Christies and Sotheby’s contemporary art auctions.
Fernanda continues to live and work in Mexico City.
