Jose Antonio Hernandez-Diez at the New Museum - New York

The remarkably varied art of Josh Antonio Hernandez-Diez is loaded with meanings, some of which inevitably elude our grasp, thereby lending poetry to works that would otherwise be unyieldingly cynical or raw. The New Museum's exhibition, which opened at the Palm Beach ICA and traveled to SITE Santa Fe, presented 14 works made from 1991 to 2000, including photographs and sculptural and video installations. Hernandez-Diez, who was born in Venezuela and now lives in Barcelona, touches upon issues having to do with global culture, leisure and mass consumption, science and technology, superstition and religion, politics and class, violence and poverty, ugliness and beauty--no small agenda. However, what is so striking about his work is that he avoids thrusting preconceived ideas down the viewer's throat, as can so easily happen with politically engaged art.

Hernandez-Diez's works challenge both the mind and the senses. Take the series of large C-prints on banners from 2000 that use logos on sneakers to spell out the names of preeminent thinkers, such as Marx and Hume. In Jung (82% by 63 inches), four new sneakers, each a different color and brand, are stacked one on top of the other. Seen from the side against a red wall, each sports one letter of the renowned psychologist's last name. To create the letter U, the artist has placed the second sneaker from the top upside down. High--once again-meets low, and surprisingly, this configuration makes for a mesmerizing photograph.

San Guinefort (1991) is another visual stunner. This haptic sculpture consists of a stuffed dog with a reddish brown pelt, lying with eyes closed inside a large vitrine linked by a tube to a tall green gas tank. Big black rubber gloves protrude from the container, two on each side, inviting you to touch the animal. This piece, which is roughly contemporaneous with Damien Hirst's sliced animal cadavers, deals with sickness and death. A perusal of the exhibition catalogue informs the viewer that San Guinefort" alludes to the forbidden cult of the holy dog as a protector of children."

Sin Titulo (Arroz con Mango) [Untitled (Rice with Mango)], 1997, offered you an opportunity to vent frustration. Consisting of a long aluminum-covered table with aluminum bats leaning against it, you could grab one of the bats and whack the top of the table. The blows triggered speakers hidden under the table to play music that had been sampled from the radio. There is more than a touch of Nauman here. Depending upon where you hit it, this anonymous object might play a mariachi, or something else. This artist is capable of such miracles. He hits you where you least expect it.

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