Among the biggest and juiciest of the works in Big Juicy Paintings (and more) now on view in MAM’s Upper Level Gallery is Arturo Herrera’s When Alone Again III 2001. This massive wall painting, which rhythmically pulsates between abstraction and figuration, features fragments of iconic images from Disney cartoons with drip-like painting evocative of abstract expressionism.

Herrera’s work, in media from collage to cut felt, taps into the viewer’s unconscious. Employing a cut-and-paste technique, he leaves traces of recognizable icons from cartoons and Walt Disney renderings of fairy tales, intertwining these fragments with abstract shapes and simulated painting. In his felt works, he cuts shapes from a piece of fabric and pins the fabric to the wall so that it hangs like a tangled form resembling the drips and splatters of a Jackson Pollock painting.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1959, Herrera now lives and works in New York and Berlin, Germany. He has had solo exhibitions at venues including Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. His work appeared in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.