An artist we have been keeping a close eye on over the last year, Dominican Republic-born, Bronx-based painter Monica Hernandez, just had her solo show Your Knotted Hair, Your Tangled Thoughts Too, at Ed. Varie in NYC, extended through April 14, 2019. As the gallery notes, "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."
The gallery also touches on another great observation about the works, "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." That has always been a reason why we were so drawn to the paintings, this idea of a story happening all around the canvas. There is a brightness and boldness to the paintings, but also a bit of still-life aspect that makes these characters feel like intimate people in the artist's life. We can't wait to see more from Hernandez in the years to come!
