Savior Complex
june 13-july 11, 2025
Viewing Room /Sargent’s Daughters
New York, NY
Press Release written by Christine Nyce
Savior Complex marks Brooklyn-based artist Cielo Félix-Hernández’s third exhibition with the gallery, presenting a new body of paintings and works on paper. Pulling inspiration from video games and the early internet, the artist intertwines her digital life with tangible traces of her community and her native Puerto Rico. The paintings are suffused with a bright, white light – both the glowing screen of a GameBoy and the sun refracting through water.
Félix-Hernández applies oil paint in thin layers, often smudging or wiping away as she builds the composition to reveal texture and complexity beneath the glossy surface. The works have a watery, hazy effect; vibrant pinks, blues, yellow, and greens all appear as reflections cast on the canvas, as light bounces off mirrors and puddles. The works on paper ground the paintings with a mixture of crisp lines and soft shading. Drawing is where all of Félix-Hernández’s compositions begin, and she continually sketches moments from her life and her imagination.
Savior Complex asks what we wish to save when the files become corrupted, what we download to the hard drive when things become tenuous and intangible. Like the Powerpuff Girls, three animated sisters with superpowers, the figures in Félix-Hernández’s work define and defend themselves on their own terms. Yet precarity is a constant, and existence is a delicate process that requires care and patience. Félix-Hernández’s parallel practices of activism and organizing has reinforced this understanding, cementing her belief in community as a sustaining force. In the current moment of escalating state violence, especially targeting immigrants and the queer and trans community, Félix-Hernández’s work offers respite, softness and protection.