Monica Hernandez

Mónica Hernández’s work is bright; colorful; and alive with the vibrancy of youth and the discovery of self in intimate spaces like a bedroom or at a dinner table. In each scene created, we discover a layered narrative to navigate through the careful placement of objects around the focal point of her paintings. Frequently there is an allusion that an additional person living just beyond the canvas edges, that other life forms exist, in the physical or in a dream state. Picking through the visual clues such as a serpentine plant in the corner of a room, a children's drawing hanging from the wall, naive doodles on the back of a man, we see that these details play a role in Hernández's storytelling, leading to a variety of themes that repeat and evolve in her work, closeness in contentment, failing while flourishing, or nostalgia and its' impact on an individual’s present self.

Hernández was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic in 1995 and moved to the U.S. when she was six. Hernández was recently on panel discussion at the Brooklyn Museum in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, to discuss how society recognizes and celebrates the femme form as a spiritual rite—mind, body, and soul, she confidently states, “We often are the ones we have been waiting for.” Hernández makes it clear in her paintings that she is not trying to wait for self, rather, to embrace it.

Mónica Hernández, b. 1995 Santiago, Dominican Republic, currently lives in The Bronx, and works in Brooklyn. She holds a BFA from Hunter College. Performances and select group exhibitions include, In Search of Us, choreographed by Petra Collins', Museum of Modern Art, 2017; For Us, BronxArtSpace, 2018, and Don't Trust Me I'm Homeless, Ed. Varie, 2019. Your Knotted Hair, Your Tangled Thoughts Too will mark Hernández's debut solo exhibition in New York.