Sofía Hernández: “My drawings intend to leave technical care and try to suggest something”

The MIAC started this February the exhibition space ‘La Cabina’ located in the museum’s restaurant. The protagonist of the premiere is the Lanzarote-born Sofía Hernández who has flooded the cubicle with ‘La lectura del retrato’ a collection of pencil drawings in which she manages to convey the personality of the models beyond the shapes of their faces. The artist did the Bachelor of Arts at Pancho Lasso, studied Audiovisual Communication at the UCM and now studies a Postgraduate in Illustration at the University Center of Design in Barcelona.

How did you live the premiere of the exhibition?

I am very happy with the result because more people came than I expected. The atmosphere was very relaxed and pleasant; and I, and I think we all, had a great time that night.

How did the opportunity to exhibit at the MIAC arise?

The CACT held a contest for the proposal of exhibition projects for La Cabina. The project had to adapt to the conditions of La Cabina: it is a very small space, the wall is rough stone that can not be intervened in any way, etc. The idea had to be conditioned to this space. I submitted my proposal and it was one of the selected ones.

The exhibition is called ‘The reading of the portrait’, how do you, as an artist, face a portrait? How do you read a portrait?

This exhibition is based on an exercise of contemplation and does not remain in the mere drawing. It’s trying to go a little further looking for something to suggest. Get out of technical care and try to suggest something. ‘The reading of the portrait’ tries to encourage the visitor to look a little further. For example, paper not only wanted it to be white but to look like the air that the model breathes. Or with the hair, which also sought to revitalize the faces. The idea was to look for elements that would give life to the portrait.

It gives the feeling that the new generations dominate the techniques very well, and increasingly soon. In this exhibition, besides the portraits, the important thing is the emotions, the feelings …

Exactly. The purpose is that the portrait itself conveys some trait of the personality or character of the model. That is truly the intention. And if not, at least it seems a nice exercise to enter an exhibition and disconnect for a few moments. I at least enjoy a lot in drawing exhibitions. I think that this small space, where there are so many drawings, may be worth paying attention to.

How is the process to choose the faces you portray?

I usually use photographs. People ask me if I do not use real models because you can also lose that artist-model relationship. This would be ideal, but the model must have a lot of patience because I do not know how long each drawing will take. For this reason, I use photography. It is true that natural drawing can be more enriching because of the variety of volumes. It takes a long time to choose a face, it has to have something expressive, I do not like harmonic models; I like that they have, perhaps, the slightly crooked teeth or some feature that distinguishes them and makes them interesting.

What is the technique you use for your drawings?

All those who are exposed are made in pencil. Then I can vary them a little with collage compositions or with splashes of color with watercolor. But I always use the pencil because it is as comfortable as I feel.

Is it your first exhibition? Does exhibiting in MIAC make you already have the feeling that this is the way?

I have exhibited other times in the withf the friends of Cerebral Parto. Those exhibitions made me very happy. Now the MIAC, is an emblematic site, very visited by locals and tourists. I believe that now I will have more opportunities for visibility.

You studied in Madrid and now you do it in Barcelona, ​​how do you see the projection of the art made on the island compared to what you can see in the big cities?

It seems clear that Lanzarote is much more limited, it is a small island and the transit of art is not the same. Anyway I think that Lanzarote has a lot of raw material; I think there is talent in Lanzarote, lately there are many initiatives interested in artistic activities such as Parto Cerebral, ARS MAGNA and also the Cabildo that is trying to promote Culture. Lanzarote right now is not up to other cities but has many possibilities.