Rodrigo Hernández

Overview
Image of Rodrigo Hernández's painting.
Rodrigo Hernández, Monkey’s dream, 2023

Rodrigo Hernández works across drawing, painting, relief, sculpture and installation, to create a personal constellation of images. His fantastical visual lexicon is rooted in a wide and distinctive range of sources: from Mexican Pre-Columbian art to Japanese prints, from European modernism to American Pop Art. As in dreams, disparate scenes and sights are interwoven in surreal images – inviting the viewer to imagine new possibilities and uncover mysterious connections. Simmering with the emotional power of subconscious memory, Hernández’s works are suffused with the attraction of the unknown. The artist renders an uncanny world of impenetrable dreams and fantasy with a fine, glowing brush. Hernández’s touchstones of poetry and philosophy frame his work within a broader epistemological and psychological exploration. His work is searching, not for an answer, but for the question.

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Works
Biography
Image of Rodrigo Hernández's painting.
Rodrigo Hernández, Muse on Russian River, 2023
Recent exhibitions of Hernández’s work include: Antenna Space, Shanghai (2024); Galería Municipal do Porto, Porto (2024); Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2024); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2024); Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg (2023); Künstlerhaus Bremen, Bremen (2023); Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2023); Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2022); Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Medellín (2022); Culturgest, Porto (2021); Fidelidade Arte, Lisboa (2021); Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (2020); Pinchuk ArtCenter, Kyiv (2109); GaMec, Bergamo (2018); ZKM Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe Resonances (2018); Nuremberg Art Association, Nuremberg (2017); 12th Biennial Femsa Monterrey, Monterrey (2016); 5th Moscow Biennial of Young Art, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (2016); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2015); Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2016); and Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht (2014).

Hernández was awarded with several international awards and grants, including the Campari Art Prize, 2018; Cité International des Arts Paris, 2016; BBVA-Museo Carrillo Gil and Jóvenes Creadores, 2016; National Fund of the Arts-FONCA, 2016; Laurenz-Haus Stiftung, Basel and Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, 2015; Jan Van Eyck Academie Stipendium, 2013; Graduiertenstipendium Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, 2013; DAAD-Preis zur Jahresausstellung, AdbK Karlsruhe, 2012, among others. He was a finalist of the Future Generation Art Prize in 2019 and attended the ArtExplora, Paris residency in 2025, as well as Istanbul Modern in 2019; Pivô, São Paulo in 2018; the Residency Unlimited, New York, 2013; Christoph Merian Stiftung, 2013; and the Salzburg Sommerakademie, 2013.

His work is in the collections of: Fundacion ARCO; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Espacio de Arte Contemporánea, Mexico City; Colección Diéresis, Guadalajara, Mexico; Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; 1800 Colleción, Tequila; AGI Verona, Italy; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; Kunstmuseum Sankt-Gallen, St. Gallen; Basel Stadt Kunstsammlung, Basel; Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo / Fundación ARCO, Madrid; ABN AMRO Art Collection, Amsterdam.

Rodrigo Hernández (1983, Mexico City, Mexico) lives and works in Mexico City. He studied at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (2014) and obtained a BA at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe in 2013.
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Exhibitions
Publications