In the vast landscape of memory, where the boundaries between reality and myth blur, Manuel Hernandez’s (b. Mexico City, 1998) paintings offer a poignant reflection on the stories that linger just beyond language. Drawing from oral histories and Indigenous visual traditions, such as the fresco-like wall paintings of Teotihuacan, Hernandez—now based in New York City—transforms both fragmented recollections of his ancestral pueblo of Sultepequito, Mexico, and multihour interviews with his portrait sitters into modern, folkloric narrative panels and dry-brushed murals. In his new solo exhibition, Eternal Voices, Raíces Resistentes at MAMA Projects, each brushstroke serves as an act of preservation, sustaining histories that are both personal and collective, tangible and elusive, while exploring the delicate boundary between testimony and imagination.

As Hernandez states, “My art is not political, it is politicized.” Eternal Voices emerges from the artist’s ongoing personal investigation into his Indigenous heritage and a conscious effort to, in his words, "decolonize his worldview." In the face of the anti-immigrant policies and anti-DEI rhetoric of the current U.S. administration, his work gains additional meaning, becoming a powerful act of resistance that asserts the dignity, joy, and cultural significance of Indigenous and Latinx peoples. Acute references to recent political happenings appear across Hernandez’s practice. In Resistance Throughout the Americas (2025), a skeletal Gaia kneels upon a bed of fire and flowers—an homage to murdered Indigenous rights and environmental activists in Mexico. Near her, a derailed train frantically cuts across the canvas overhead of Zapatista insurgents. Throughout Eternal Voices, the artist slyly incorporates recurring motifs of traditional and modern transportation methods—trains, footprints, horses, and cars—in a quiet nod to governmental restrictions on migration. In doing so, Hernandez hints at the arbitrary nature of borders for Indigenous peoples, reaffirming their connection to the land as part of a deeper, more enduring narrative.

At the heart of the exhibition is Wa’okiyesa (2025), a large portrait-mural of Eugene Black Crow, a contemporary Sioux activist and teacher dedicated to preserving the Lakota language. Hernandez’s first portrait of an Indigenous person north of the U.S.-Mexico border, this work depicts Black Crow gesticulating in a ghostly rocking chair beneath a violet-red sky, surrounded by direct quotes and images inspired by his conversations with the artist. The portrait draws a powerful parallel between the struggles of Indigenous communities across borders, with both Black Crow and Hernandez recognizing how the language imposed upon their ancestors—whether English or Spanish—becomes a mere nuance in the larger legacy of colonization. Black Crow’s family history, marked by a need to leave their reservation to work on farms, is evoked through the faint red scene of agricultural labor, echoing the experiences of contemporary immigrant communities in the United States.

While Hernandez’s portrait-murals are grounded in interviews and research, his smaller “shaped-paintings” avoid integrating written text into the visual plane; surreal hues and ambiguous temporality embrace the unfixed nature of his retrospections, transforming them into universally resonant narratives. Paintings such as Baile en Ridgewood (2025) and Noche de Cumbia (2025) depict raucous gatherings, while other scenes lean into quieter domestic moments. In Tesoro (2025), Hernandez appropriates the Dutch still-life tradition, placing preternaturally perfect ripe green fruits and vegetables alongside a molcajete. The insertion of the artist’s own hand into the work is an intimate gesture that evokes his struggle to incorporate past traditions into current practice. In another piece, Handwash (2024), Hernandez depicts his grandmother, Doña Lidia, in soft pink pastel shades as she tenderly hand-washes dishes, rejecting the convenience of modernity in favor of time-honored, sustainable practices.

In Manuel Hernandez: Eternal Voices, Raíces Resistentes, memory is not a passive relic but a living, breathing entity, one that pulses with the energy of survival and resistance, bridging time and space to preserve the narratives that define cultural identity.

– Daniela Mayer

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Born in Mexico City and based in NYC, Manuel Hernandez expands the narrative of contemporary Native American identity in Latin America. Blending written and oral histories, his paintings embody reclamation—both in form and feeling. Working on rough, wall-mounted surfaces, he applies dry brush techniques to evoke the textures of ancient frescoes and the legacy of the Mexican Muralists. Breaking from traditional square canvases, he shapes his works like animal hides, drawing from family stories, historical research, and firsthand encounters with ancestral art and ruins.