My little heart, 2026

Oil on wood; 35 × 25 × 3 cm

This painting was first exhibited in The Long Pond, a solo exhibition by Rodrigo Hernández at ChertLüdde in 2025 that recounts the last trip the artist took with his partner before moving overseas.

In the painting, the artist holds a miniature snail shell found on the coast of Maine. Such haptic details ground the exhibition in the artist’s lived experiences while remaining universal and open. The shell becomes a tactile memory, insisting on the physicality of longing and reminding the viewer that the exhibition’s emotional register is not abstract but intimately felt—centered on tenderness, belonging, and desire.