About

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arelythernandezzz@gmail.com

Arely Hernandez is a multidisciplinary visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, by immigrant parents from Mexico and Guatemala. Arely herself identifies as Indigenous through her parents' connections to their respective Native languages and customs. She is a visual storyteller sharing her catharsis of Indigeneity gained through her lived experience and kinship with the land and her ancestors. She evokes a self-reflection of one's individual relationship with ownership and belonging using themes of the natural environment intertwined with the spirit and body. These pillars are embodied in her works and told primarily through the mediums of paint, print, and ceramics with the desire to elicit a radical sense of joy, love, and resistance.

While attending the University of California at Santa Cruz, the artistic and cultural community gave her an understanding of institutional barriers to expression and connection. She decided to focus her studies in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Non-Western Art History. Her studies cultivated a foundation of skills necessary for world building and reimagination. Currently she is based in the Bay Area, CA, and her works are sites of remembrance, expressed through forms including family and photo archives, self portrait studies, and dreamlike compositions. Her work has been shown at the Oakland Museum of California and she has been an artist in residence at Chayote Press, Los Angeles.

Education

2021 — BA in Anthropology, The History of Art and Visual Culture, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

2019 — Japanese Printmaking Moku Hanga and Paper Making, Tama Art University, Tokyo

Selected Exhibitions

2026 — Featured Artist, Our Isla Our Island, Holistika Studios, Lafayette, CA

2025 — Featured Artist, Organic Matter, 3319 Marche, Oakland, CA

2024 — Creative Media Fellow, Sogorea’Te Land Trust, Oakland, CA

2023 — Featured Artist, Por El Pueblo: The Legacy & Influence of Malaquias Montoya, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA

2023 — Special Guest, In-Gallery Writing and Reflection, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA

2022 — Resident Artist, Chayote Press, Los Angeles, CA

2022 — Featured Artist, Borderlands: Nuestro Pueblo Collaborative Print Portfolio, Chayote Press, Los Angeles, CA

Last Updated 05.11.26