In his studio in the Tuscan countryside, Abel Herrero creates large-scale canvases that explore the relationship between humans and the natural world. Starting with pure color, he gradually removes layers of oil paint until he reaches the raw white of the canvas. The sea is one of the artist’s favorite subjects, carrying both a personal and universal significance. Ever-present on his native island, it is both an insurmountable barrier and a symbol of freedom and hope. A place of holidays and carefree living, the sea also suffers the consequences of the excesses of our modern lifestyle. In works like Green Temptation, what Riccardo Venturi describes as a “chromatic apocalypse” takes place and is “put into image”: the paintings depict landscapes tainted by a nuclear explosion or a climatic event whose outlines elude us, dominated by light cinnabar green — a color dear to the painter. Herrero’s painting is thus rich in political and social themes and, at the same time, “humble, essential, devoid of rhetoric, bare, rapid, and luminous,” as the artist himself states. This volume follows Herrero’s first Parisian exhibition Jeux Dangereux (June 22 – September 10, 2024), organized by Tornabuoni Art, and includes an interview with the artist on his work, his inspirations, and his ongoing reflections on color, light, and material.

Abel Herrero was born in Cuba in 1971. He traveled to Milan for his first international exhibition at the age of 23. Since then, he has settled permanently in Italy, where he formed friendships with a wide circle of artists and intellectuals, including masters of the previous generation such as Claudio Parmiggiani, with whom he exhibited in 2023 at the Museo del Novecento in Florence. Among his institutional exhibitions are the Venice Biennale (2011), MAXXI in Rome (2014), and the Havana Biennale (2015). Herrero continues to exhibit in both Italy and Cuba.

Riccardo Venturi is a historian, contemporary art critic, and head of the public program at Fondazione ICA in Milan. He writes for exhibition catalogues, academic and non-academic publications, both print and digital, including Artforum, Alias – Il Manifesto, Flash Art, Doppiozero, and the writing and image platform “Antinomie” (www.antinomie.it), which he co-founded. He teaches at the Brera Academy, NABA, and is Maître de conférences at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris. For Arte Fiera 2020, he served as a member of the jury for the Mediolanum Painting Prize.