Albano Hernández at Pi Artworks Istanbul: Painting Sliced from a Single Brushstroke

What happens to a brushstroke if you cut it like bread? That question sits at the heart of Albano Hernández’s practice, and from 5 November to 31 December 2026 Istanbul audiences can see the answer in person. Pi Artworks Istanbul presents a solo exhibition by the Spanish artist at its Piyalepaşa space.

Who is Albano Hernández?

Born in Ávila, Spain, in 1988, Hernández lives and works in Cambridge, UK. He studied fine art at the Complutense University of Madrid and completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2022 with distinction, supported by the Basil H. Alkazzi Scholarship, winning the Hine Painting Prize the same year. Earlier distinctions include Spain’s BMW Painting Prize (2012) and the Obra Abierta Award. His work is held in collections including Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Library of Spain, the Collège d’Espagne in Paris and the University of Cambridge.

The sliced brushstroke

Hernández works primarily with ceramics, but thinks as a painter. His recent paintings begin with a single, oversized brushstroke modelled in air-dry clay. When it is almost dry, he cuts it into thin slices with an electric food slicer, then lays the slices out in the order a Western reader scans a page — left to right, top to bottom. The finished object is a painting assembled from fragments of one gesture.

The method stages a series of oppositions the artist himself describes: hand labour against industrial process, making against undoing, purity against impurity. It also follows a circular-economy logic, reusing studio waste so that works feed into one another. The result invites several readings at once — a meditation on what it means to paint, a comment on mass consumption (the deli slicer is hard to ignore), or simply a new way of looking.

The Shadow: painting on grass

Hernández reached a wider public with The Shadow, in which he traced the shadow of a tree directly onto grass with non-toxic, water-based paint. Shown at Frieze Sculpture in Regent’s Park in 2024 and at Dulwich Picture Gallery in 2025, the work fades as the grass grows — a painting that is also a sculpture, a sundial and an act of disappearance.

Why see it in Istanbul

Pi Artworks, which operates in Istanbul and London, has followed Hernández closely: his first solo show with the gallery took place in London in 2023, and he featured in its Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 presentation alongside Osman Dinç and Gülay Semercioğlu. The Istanbul exhibition gives Turkish collectors their first concentrated look at an artist whose practice sits between painting, ceramics and conceptual art — and whose material experiments speak directly to the city’s strong ceramic traditions.

The gallery has not yet published a title or list of works; we will update this article when it does.

Visiting information

Pi Artworks Istanbul, 32 B Piyalepaşa Bulvarı, Istanbul. 5 November – 31 December 2026. Open Tuesday–Saturday, 10:30am–7pm; Sunday and Monday by appointment. Phone +90 212 245 13 23. Find social links and a map on our Albano Hernández listing, the official page on Pi Artworks’ website, and more Istanbul and international openings on Upcoming Art Exhibitions in Leading Galleries.