Víctor Herrero Gaixet

VÍCTOR HERRERO GAIXET (Barcelona, 1949).
"Arco Tremola," January 2018.
Mixed media and collage on treated linen.
Signed in pencil and dated.
Measurements: 100 x 92 cm.

“ARCO Tiembla” is a work represented by a figure that embodies light and darkness, as well as kindness and bias. In an edition—February 2018—that reexamined the conceptual framework: “The future is not what will happen, but what we will do.” A future shaped by the nature of art and its multicultural role in society. “TIEMBLA” stems from the controversy over censorship, where the future of art should not be governed by imposition but should embody the essence of creative freedom, full expressiveness, and the willingness to accept criticism. In 2018, the exhibition was banned, leading to the unprecedented removal of a work by Santiago Sierra titled *Political Prisoners in Contemporary Spain*, which included images of imprisoned Spanish and Catalan political figures. This was a blow to freedom of expression, an event that opens the debate on how art should not be limited by political interests.
The image of “ARCO Tiembla” is an icon of the dual nature of the concept: truth and hypocrisy. The opaque eye is that which prevents us from seeing, and the transparent eye is that which reveals inconsistencies. It is a critical commentary on what should never have happened within the realm of creative expression.

Víctor Herrero began painting in 1982, and his first solo exhibition took place in 1985. Since then, he has maintained a continuous trajectory of work and independent research on art, perception, and processes of representation. Currently, he combines his artistic practice with a project that bridges art, education, and culture, focusing on the formation of early images, the origins of children’s drawings, and their dialogue with certain languages of 20th-century avant-garde art. In his current work, he uses a mixed-media technique involving fragments of street posters that he cuts up and reassembles, transforming their original meaning to give them new life through forms and images born of their own metamorphosis.