Brown Foundation Gallery
March 6 – May 30, 2021
This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Texas Commission on the Arts.
Mari Hernandez
Figments of Truth
Mari Hernandez’ exhibition, Figments of Truth, features the artist’s ongoing exploration into self-portraits that examine the history of portraiture and the characteristics of canonical representation. Hernandez’ invented subjects are derived from theories of physiognomy that claimed to explain (and illustrate) that a person's physical features or expression are indicative of their personality, intellect, and moral character. The subjects are characters presented as strong, stoic, dignified, and important, while their histories are both present and unseen. Collectively, Hernandez’ photographs present a historical narrative under the guise of documentation and emphasize that history is storytelling—imagined narratives, intentionally constructed, and subjectively biased. The work questions how physiognomy and the characteristics of an individual inform identity, and how much of our identity is self-created or projected onto us. The work questions how much of an identity that is projected or fabricated gets internalized by an individual. Based on representation, which is the more authentic self?
Mari Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist that utilizes self-portraiture to address questions about identity. Her career in non-profit arts organizations led her to explore socially engaged and identity-based art and offer her a platform to address the lack of representation of women of color in her arts community in San Antonio, TX. As a co-founder of the Chicana art collective Mas Rudas (2009-2015), her self-portraits focused on Chicana aesthetic. Hernandez’ work has been featured in exhibitions at the McNay Art Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Artpace San Antonio, the Institute of Texan Cultures, Centro de Artes, and the Appalachian Center for Craft in Tennessee. Hernandez is a graduate of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute and Arts Advocacy Institute, and she participated in the inaugural Public Art San Antonio Mentorship Course. In 2017, she was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Fund for the Arts Grant. Hernandez holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
