Liz Hernández

Photo: Jeff McLane/ICA LA

Donde piso, crecen cosas
(Where I step, things grow)

October 11, 2025 ➽ March 01, 2026
Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California

Full text in Spanish and translations in English and French.

In this site-specific mural, Liz Hernández draws from her lived experience to address the ongoing attacks on immigrant and undocumented populations across the United States. Through a patchwork of words and images, Donde piso, crecen cosas (Where I step, things grow) (2025) offers a narrative expressing Hernández’s complex feelings, which are both deeply personal and communally resonant: fear and uncertainty, resolve and survival, care and solidarity.

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Photo: Claire S Burke

Objects of Inquiry: The Office for the Study of the Ordinary

February 22 ➽ April 5, 2025
San Francisco State University Fine Arts Gallery
San Francisco, CA

Objects of Inquiry is the culmination of an artist residency with Liz Hernández at SF State's School of Art, sponsored by the Harker Fund of the San Francisco Foundation. Over the last twelve months, Hernández has been serving as the lead researcher for the fictional Office for the Study of Ordinary. Her office focused on investigating the everyday and documenting hidden narratives, creating objects, images, and writing, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, vulnerability, curiosity, and experimentation. This culminating exhibition features documentation of the physical office, processes, artifacts, collaborations, and printed material of the O.S.O.

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Una vieja propuesta para una nueva singularidad
(An Old Proposal for a New Singularity)
Acrylic on Amate paper, 28” x 28”

Somos aquellos quienes nos rodean
(We are made of those around us)
Aluminium, 29” x 24”

¿Para qué sirve la utopía?
(What Is the Purpose of utopia?) 
Acrylic on Amate paper, 52” x 40”

De raíz a mujer
(From Root to Woman)
Aluminium, 21” x 13”

Buscamos otras formas de vivir
(We Seek Other Ways of Living)
Acrylic on Amate paper, 20” x 28”

Las plantas hablan
(The Plants Speak)
Acrylic and gold leaf on Amate paper, 24.5” x 24.5”

La gente telúrica #1
(The Telluric People #1)
Acrylic and gold leaf on Amate paper, 19.5” x 19.5”

Crecimos en un suelo compartido
(We Grew up on Shared Soil)
Embossed aluminium, 21” x 13”

La gente telúrica #2
(The Telluric People #2)
Acrylic and gold leaf on Amate paper, 19.5” x 19.5”

El mundo que no logro ver
(The World I Fail to See)
Acrylic on Amate paper, 19.5” x 19.5”

El agua habla sin cesar y nunca se repite
(Water Speaks Incessantly and Never Repeats Itself)
Aluminium, 29” x 24”

Galileo’s Latest Memo
Liz Hernández & Ryan Whelan
Acrylic on wood panel and inlaid aluminium, 58” x 72”

News from Nowhere
duo presentation with Ryan Whelan
September 5 ➽ September 8, 2024
The Armory Show
Javits Center
New York, NY

News from Nowhere explores visions of utopia focused on the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, viewing utopia not as a destination, but as an ideal we strive for.

Hernández presents paintings on Amate paper, a handmade paper originating in pre-Hispanic times, and embossed aluminum reliefs portraying scenes of humans and nature in a reciprocal, communal exchange. The writings of Mixe linguist Yásnaya Aguilar, 15th-century herbal manuscripts, and William Morris’s ideas inform the utopian vision envisioned in Hernández’s imagery.

For Whelan, pattern-based paintings depicting abstracted, organic forms, at once familiar and new, pose an exploration of utopia as an open-ended notion; a shifting horizon shaping how we reimagine the alienation and flux of the now. Grounded in the ideas of William Morris, Adolf Loos, Charles Burchfield, and the Hippie Modernism movement, Whelan’s focus on surface, texture, and light opposes the smooth object, expanding compositions intended to “fill the eye and satisfy the mind,” as Morris wrote.

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El Aleph de Argelia
(Argelia's Aleph)
Argelia Rebollo
Acrylic on linen, 24” x 36”

Mapa del país de la memoria: territorio perdido
(Map of the country of memory: Lost territory)
Argelia Rebollo
Acrylic on linen, 9” x 12”

El encuentro de las dos Argelias (The meeting of the two Argelias)
Argelia Rebollo
Acrylic on linen, 24” x 30”

Hacerme comprensible para los demás me hace sentir un vacío interior (Making myself understandable to others makes me feel empty inside)
Rusted aluminum
31” x 24.25” stacked

A José Emilio Pacheco, quien ha expresado todo aquello que desearía comunicar
(To José Emilio Pacheco, who has conveyed everything I would like to communicate)
Argelia Rebollo
Acrylic on linen, 18” x 24”

Confrontación
(Confrontation)
Rusted aluminum, 23.75” x 19.75”

Tú y yo
(You and I)
Argelia Rebollo
Acrylic on linen, 10” x 20”

Monumento a la mujer de las dos almas
(Monument to the two-soul woman)
Low relief in cantera stone, 36” x 36”

Es imposible regresar al país de la memoria
(It is impossible to return to the country of memory)
Typewriter,microcontrollers, custom table and tile covered plinth, 41” x 38.5” x 32”

La batalla interna
(The internal battle)
Rusted aluminum, 20.75” x 17.75”

Monumento al lugar donde no existo (Monument to the place where I do not exist)
Low relief in cantera stone, 36” x 36”

Collection of Argelia’s personal belongings
Silver gelatin prints and manipulated found objects, dimensions variable

En el país de la memoria (In the Country of Memory)
a duo exhibition with Argelia Rebollo
October 28 ➽ December 16th, 2023
Pt.2 Gallery
Oakland, CA

We are so deeply seduced by what remains hidden, by that which cannot be grasped completely and can only be sensed or perceived through clues, and the unfathomable mystery of the unrevealed. We now enter into a territory of shadows. Liz Hernández welcomes us into a country where memory is as speculative as fiction, where it is far more interesting to suspect than to verify. A territory marked by quicksand where one person can be many, in constant interaction, conflict, and reconciliation. A place that is fertile ground for imagination and risk. Identity, in such a country, becomes blurred. At play here is the multiplicity of the individual, the exchanging of masks, and the disguise of the name.

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Baba Yaga’s Hut
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 22” x 26”

Tuileries
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 22” x 26”

The Catacombs
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 22” x 26”

The Old Castle
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 22” x 26”

Baba Yaga's Hut, San Francisco Symphony
Photo: Brittany Hosea-Small

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony

Paired with Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition
November, 2023
San Francisco, California

In a contemporary twist, the San Francisco Symphony commissioned artists Liz Hernández and Fernando Escartíz to create new works in response to Mussorgsky's music and Hartmann’s art for a series of special concerts. This unique performance takes listeners on a sonic tour of an imaginary art exhibition, seamlessly transitioning between sections. The innovative exploration of the intersection of visual art and music not only breathes new life into Mussorgsky's iconic work but also highlights its enduring influence across the musical and visual arts.

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Photo: Shaun Roberts

Topónimo
(Toponym)
Stoneware tile mosaic, 31.5” x 31.5”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Breve informe de los hallazgos de Camohpalxochichoquiztlan
(Brief report of the findings of Camohpalxochichoquiztlan)
Riso print on found paper, 18” x 34”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Testimonio de las mujeres del pueblo de Camohpalxochichoquiztlan #1
(Testimony of the women of the town of Camohpalxochichoquiztlan #1)
Cotton thread on raw cotton, 28” x 35”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Testimonio de las mujeres del pueblo de Camohpalxochichoquiztlan #2
(Testimony of the women of the town of Camohpalxochichoquiztlan #2)
Cotton thread on raw cotton, 28” x 35”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Altar de bolsillo #1 & #2
(Pocket shrine #1 & #2)
Leather, cotton fabric, milagros, religious charms, pressed flowers, intervened religious images, dimensions variable

Mi Testimonio
(My testimony)
in collaboration with Graciela Vázquez,
Graphite on found paper, 10.5” x 8.5”

Ánima Sola Jacaranda
(Jacaranda Lonely Soul)
Intervened religious image of a soul in purgatory, 5” x 3”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

(L) Mis piernas son las raíces que nacen de la tierra (My legs are the roots that are born from the earth)
(C) La flor morada que llora" (The weeping purple flower)
(R) El lenguaje de las flores (The language of flowers)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 29” x 24”

Tiene la flor de la Jacaranda todas las edades y verdades
(The jacaranda flower is all ages and holds all truths)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 43” x 65”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Que todo el mundo se entere: ahí vienen las Jacarandas
(Let everyone know: here come the Jacarandas)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 72” x 96”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

El cierre, el regalo del reencuentro
(Closure, the gift of reuniting)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 48” x 60”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Un recuerdo del Camohpalxochitepetl
(A souvenir of the Camohpalxochitepetl hill)
Papier-mâché, vinyl paint, 16” x 12” x 9”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Un ente mitad mujer, mitad flor
(A half-woman, half-flower entity)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 48” x 36”

Vestuario para la Danza de las Jacarandas
(Costume for the Dance of the Jacarandas)
in collaboration with Gloria Rebollo, Artificial flowers, tulle, pearl button

Screening Room View: Flores que brotan entre las antiguas piedras
Photo: Shaun Roberts

Donde las flores moradas lloran ⁣
(Where the Purple Flowers Cry)

October 15 ➽ November 4, 2022
Pt.2 Gallery
Oakland, CA

In Mexico, it frequently happens that violence goes unrecognized by the very people who commit it. This makes it so that neither collective memory nor official discourse coincide with the affective memory of those who are hurt: there is a breach, an open wound. Absences— of life, of recognition —mobilize searchers. It becomes necessary to search for other stories, other ways to remember absent bodies and make them visible. Could it be that justice has become something supernatural, something beyond reach that can only be gained in the space of dreams and myths?

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Flores que brotan entre antiguas piedras
(Blooming Flowers Among the Ancient Stones)
2022

With the death and fall of a flower, a supernatural entity is summoned. As she wanders through the streets and palaces of an ancient land’s past, she begins asking questions.

Blooming Flowers Among the Ancient Stones is a short film directed by César Iván Ortiz López and produced in collaboration with Liz Hernández. It is a story parallel to the legend of Las Jacarandas, in which one of the Jacaranda spirits is summoned by the death of a flower. As she roams through the ancient streets and palaces of Mexico City, she interviews its inhabitants, hoping to understand her new reality.

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Photo: Katherine Du Tiel/SFMOMA

Conjuro para la sanación de nuestro futuro
(A spell for the healing of our future)

March 7, 2021 ➽ November 6, 2022
Installed with Cole Solinger and Lena Gustafson
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco, California

Here Hernández presents symbols and texts that reference our collective moment: lungs represent life and the air we breathe, polluted as our forests burn; hands, now associated with infection, are also used to nurture and answer calls for aid; eyes include cellphones and cameras, which seek the truth and bear witness to injustice. Together this collection of images summons a higher power to sustain our community’s health and future and reminds us that we are all connected. For Hernández, this higher power is not intended to be “God” as a single force, but rather our shared existence; the living world and everything included in it.

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Culpa
(Guilt)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 60” x 42”

Pureza
(Purity)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 40” x 32”

Devoción
(Devotion)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 60” x 42”

Autoridad
(Authority)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 40” x 32”

Ritual del día
(Everyday Ritual)
Stoneware and pewter charms, 12” x 12” x 10”

Puente #1 - #7
(Bridges #1 - #7)
Stoneware, mirrors and pewter charms, dimensions variable

Mis símbolos sagrados
(My sacred symbols)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 32.5” x 32.5”

Los símbolos sagrados de mi Abuela
(My Grandmother's sacred symbols)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 32.5” x 32.5”

Convertirme en el universo
(Becoming the Universe)
Stoneware, 12” x 12” x 10”

(L) Rituales del Templo (The Temple's Rituals)
(R) Los Siete Escalones (The Seven Steps)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 14” x 12”

(L) Energía de Sanación (Healing Energy)
(R) Las ánimas (The Souls)
Embossed aluminum on wood panel, 14” x 12”

Reclamación
(Reclamation)
Vinyl paint and clay on canvas, 40” x 32”

Trenzando milagros
(Braiding miracles)
Stoneware and pewter charms, 12” x 2”

Luz y progreso en tu camino
Acrylic mirrors, 40.5” x 30.5”

Talismán

November 14 ➽ December 4, 2020
Pt.2 Gallery
Oakland, CA

Marcus Garvey wrote that “a people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Hernandez’s new work has an archival quality that draws on the importance of artwork to document moments in history. The artworks in Talismán explore the dual belief systems from Hernandez’s upbringing in Mexico, that of the Catholic Church, and visits to the temple of the Espiritismo Trinitario Mariano. They thus not only offer self-reflection for the artist, but an essential preservation of knowledge.

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Las Insólitas Voces
Hardground etching with chine collé
19” x 21”, Edition 10, printed by 222 Press
2024

Mi permiso secreto
(My secret permission)
Clay slip, gold leaf, and vinyl paint on canvas, 72" x 60.5"
2023

La Manda
Aluminum, 28" x 23"
2023

La mirada avizora
(The watchful look)
Aluminium, 11” x 14”
2021

Retoñando
(Sprouting)
Aluminum, 14" x 12"
2021

Mi Reflejo
(My Reflection)
Clay slip, silver leaf, and vinyl paint on paper, 32.5" x 28.5 "
2021

Materializada
(Materialized)
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 32.5" x 28.5"
2021

La Mano
(The hand)
Clay slip, silver leaf, and vinyl paint on paper, 26.5" x 26.5"
2021

El templo sumergido en el aroma secreto de Urania
Clay slip and vinyl paint on paper, 26.5" x 26.5"
2021

Te vemos
(We see you)
Clay slip, vinyl paint and silver leaf on paper, 22.5" x 19.25"
2021

Artifact 1
Clay slip and vinyl paint on raw canvas, 18"x 32"
2018

Alta Traición
(High treason)
Clay slip and vinyl paint on canvas, 32"x 40"
2017

Loading the kiln
Clay slip and vinyl paint on raw canvas,24"x32"
2018

Artifact 2
Clay slip and vinyl paint on raw canvas, 18"x 32"
2018

Platos en la mesa
Clay slip and vinyl paint on raw canvas, 36" x 42"
2017

Olla con flores
(Pot with flowers)
Clay slip and vinyl paint on raw canvas, 24" x 24"
2017

Other works
2019 ➽ 2024

Selected works on paper, canvas and aluminium.

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Photo: Edgardo Moctezuma

Photo: Margaret Austin

Photo: Mariah Tiffany

Pink Murals

2019 ➽ 2021
In partnerships with Fondo de Cultura Económica USA, Google Artist in Residence program, and 100 Days Action

These three commissioned projects across California explore how public art can foster community connection and cultural celebration. A traveling book truck brings Spanish-language literature to families throughout the state, a mural in Mountain View reveals how food becomes more than sustenance, and wheat-pasted artwork in San Francisco offered messages of solidarity to essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Created through partnerships with Fondo de Cultura Económica USA, Google Artist in Residence program, and 100 Days Action, each project transforms public spaces into sites of accessibility, care, and shared cultural expression.

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La tortillería horizontal

This site-specific project took over an abandoned storefront and transformed it into a cultural platform exploring corn. The project had iterations at MUCA-Roma (2015) and Casa del Lago (2016).

In collaboration with Andreas Krüger Foncerrada, Maio Alvear, Santiago Marín de Buen, and Haegen Crosby.
Mexico City, Mexico
2015

La tortillería horizontal served as a cultural platform that encouraged the public to make their own tortillas and to engage in community events. We organized lectures, workshops, concerts, and communal meals centered on corn, its cultural significance, and the challenges posed by genetically modified corn in Mexico. Located in Coyoacán, south of Mexico City, the space was open for one month.

Inside, a comal and various presses were available, allowing visitors to choose their preferred method of tortilla-making, using masa sourced directly from San Gregorio Atlapulco in Xochimilco. At the tortillería horizontal, visitors could craft their own tortillas and enjoy a free taco with us—this tortilla-making process sparked discussions about the cultural importance of corn. We also provided a library focusing on corn and related topics for visitors to explore relevant materials. Additionally, we organized talks, workshops, and other activities to explore the complex issues surrounding corn from multiple perspectives.

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