Along familiar Laredo streets, ordinary warehouses, overlooked corners, and everyday architectural details become part of the scenery we learn to look past. For Austin-based artist Hector Hernández, these spaces offer an opportunity to reconsider how we occupy and experience our surroundings.
On Friday, November 13, Daphne Art Foundation opens Monolith, an exhibition of photographs that reframe familiar Laredo backdrops through the eyes of Hector Hernández.
Working with a model dressed in red, posing as a monolith, Hernández introduces a striking presence into these otherwise unassuming environments. Through the model’s natural poses and Hernández’s thoughtful attention to composition, ordinary scenes take on a new visual rhythm.
Hernández describes this as “investigating the relationship between bodies and architecture in shared spaces.”
As I have had the opportunity to coordinate with Hernández throughout the development of this exhibition, I have found myself looking at these photographs with an appreciation for the subtle ways a figure, a setting, and a camera can transform our perception of a place.
Extending beyond Casa Daphne, Monolith will also feature an offsite component that invites viewers into the very community where these photographs were made. By bringing the exhibition into the spaces that inspired it, Hernández encourages audiences to reconsider the familiar not only through the gallery experience, but through their own everyday encounters with the city.
Hernández is a multidisciplinary artist and curator and a founding member of Los Outsiders curatorial collective. His work has been exhibited at the Getty Museum, LACMA, Queens Museum, The Contemporary Austin, and Mexic-Arte Museum, and also featured in multiple publications including ARTFORUM, Art in America, VOGUE, and The New York Times.
On view at Casa Daphne through January 8, 2027, Monolith offers an invitation to slow down, look again, and discover new possibilities within the landscapes we call home.
