Brianna L. Hernández (b. 1991) is a Chicana artist, curator, educator, and death doula guided by socially-engaged practices. Her background includes experience working in community organizations, gallery, museum, and higher education settings, and as a consultant with public health researchers. In developing as an artist and creative professional Brianna credits her late mother, Sylvia D. Hernández, as her most significant mentor and inspiration for the creativity, resilience, and compassion she demonstrated throughout her life.
In the studio, Brianna creates installations through several mediums including large-scale charcoal drawings, video art, sculpture, and performances. Her work focuses on end-of-life care, grieving processes, and mourning rituals based on lived experience, cultural research, and collaborations with peers. In addition to formal artworks, her practice offers workshops and takeaway resources for viewers to self-educate through the safety of the creative process.
As a curator, Brianna works with artists to make socially-charged topics publicly accessible in order to create opportunities for education and empathy. As an extension of this socially-conscious approach, Brianna frequently collaborates with community health researchers to incorporate the arts into collection and dissemination of public health project data.
Brianna proudly serves as Curator and Board Secretary of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, New York. Additionally, she is currently the Curatorial Fellow at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, NY, Board Treasurer at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Committee Member for the Gente Chicana/SOYmos Chicanos Arts Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.
(Photo credit: Jeremy Dennis)