Tony HERNANDEZ
Summary
Tony Hernandez is haunted by photographs of children who perished in the Holocaust. He is also preoccupied with images of boys and girls who struggled through the Great Depression, especially in the ghettos of the Bronx where his grandparents lived. "Unlike adults, children are powerless," he says. "They're usually the ones to suffer the most from man's supreme ability to be ignorant throughout history." Imbued with a rich symbolism of his own creation, Hernandez's paintings of pre-adolescent boys and girls grapple with this powerlessness, as well as the "mind of wonder" that sustains children even in the darkest hours.
Over the past several decades, Hernandez has single-mindedly explored these themes, working exclusively on handmade birch wood panels using the technically-demanding process of encaustic painting. With a deceptively simple visual vocabulary, depicting children adrift in a featureless landscape, he creates vignettes of a subtle psychological power. His poignant compositions are distilled down to their emotional essence, granting viewers entry into a world of transcendence.
Tony Hernandez exhibits internationally and his works are in numerous public collections throughout the U.S., notably the Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco.
Press
Tony HERNANDEZ
Hernandez Press Release 2017
2017-06-08
