Hidrante is pleased to present La Piel Muda del Tiempo, a group exhibition with works by Amarise Deán Santo, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and Gadiel Rivera Herrera. 
Is Time a living entity? Does it possess a skin? Does it shed or regenerate, constantly evolving as it ages and transforms? Skin, a layer that both separates and confines, is simultaneously flexible, porous, and sensitive—a primal shaper, the original definer of existence. La Piel Muda del Tiempo contemplates Time as a tangible form, a spectrum of change in life, and the potential of its perception. 
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz's (b.1972, San Juan, PR) film Farmacopea (2012) focuses on the Matrulla Lake in Orocovis, which serves as a site to observe the evolution of the archipelagic landscape and the flora that inhabits it. Orocovis, which means "memory of the first mountain," is where Pablo Díaz Cuadrado has lived since 1971, just a few miles from the lake. An open-ended film, Farmacopea is a time machine that transmutes the present into the past, propelling us toward the future. 
 Shedding skin is often seen as a symbol of rebirth, transformation, immortality, and healing. In Amarise Deán Santo's (b. 1995, New York, US) works, lizard skin represents the idea of continuous renewal and inevitable change in life. The artist interprets the landscape by focusing on specific introduced species of flora and fauna, both familiar and foreign, as a way to express their lived experience in the archipelago. Flamboyan seed pods, metallic window screen mesh, and concrete make up the artist's frame, which emphasizes the direct reference of the works to the artist's intake of new experiences and unfamiliar surroundings. 
 Protuberances growing from a vase, a face emerging from a ceramic form, or the weight of a form on top of another are some elements that first catch the eye in Gadiel Rivera Herrera's (b. 1963, San Juan, PR) sculptures. Rivera Herrera's work departs from his practice as a wheel-based ceramicist to continually push the possibility of his medium through intricate experimentation with surfaces and construction methods. His carefully constructed surfaces of oxides, glazes, metallic powder, and smoked patinas make it easy for details to emerge, that the oneiric is interpreted and takes form, a transformative encounter.