Sergio Hernández

Decades of exploration have allowed him to hone an unmistakable language and style: innovative and conservative at the same time, highly appreciated by collectors and art critics. His work exemplifies to the highest degree the achievements of an entire generation of artists across the Americas. Throughout his successful career, he has never lost the ease and authenticity of his early attempts. 

He belonged to a valuable group of Oaxacan modernist artists, who had in common a fantastic realism that is nourished by pre-Columbian inheritances, magical primitivism, the limitless wealth of popular art, as well as universal and cosmopolitan traditions. His use of symbolism frequently captures both his Indigenous roots and those of his hometown in Oaxaca, highlighting the Zapotec and Mixtec cultures of Mesoamerica. Additionally, he explores the marvels of the natural world, showcasing the indigenous species of southern Mexico, the Pacific Ocean, and the constellations in the night sky. Hernández’s printmaking, inspired by the legacy of Oaxacan artists like Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, along with his incorporation of local materials like cochineal (a red pigment developed by Indigenous Zapotec artists before the Spanish conquest and later exported worldwide as the “perfect” red), firmly connects his artistic endeavors to significant local and Indigenous traditions. 

Over the past few years, his explorations have become increasingly audacious, due to the confidence he has gained through experience and reflection. Hernández is a learned painter, a book lover, a traveler, but his work seems to take on a life of its own, as if it were not of this planet. Indeed, true artists create worlds as they paint. (Sergio Hernández photo by Angie Yollox Instagram: @angieyollox).