William Hernandez | Poetic Translations: A Visual Journey

WILLIA M HERNANDEZ

P O E T IC T R A N S L AT IO N S a visual journey

WILLIA M HERNANDEZ

P O E T IC T R A N S L AT IO N S a vi su al jou rn ey J u n e 7 - J u ly 28, 201 8

contemporary international art 512 1st Avenue South | Seattle, WA 98104 206.839.0377 | www.artxchange.org

ABOUT ARTXCHANGE GALLERY ArtXchange Gallery is a contemporary intercultural art gallery that inspires cultural exploration, the expansion of global community and the exchange of ideas through art. We exhibit art from around the world that reflects the diversity of influences shaping the Seattle community and contemporary global culture.

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Portland-based, Peruvian artist William Hernandez returns to Seattle with Poetic Translations: A Visual Journey, a collaboration and creative response to a suite of poems about relationships and memory by Portland writer Christa Kaainoa. The characters in Poetic Translations seem to spring from a collection of fairytales and fables, with a blend of whimsy and melancholy throughout the dreamlike scenes. Sometimes the connections between words and images reveal themselves easily, but more often Hernandez takes Kaainoa’s words to surreal and imaginative heights.

Continuing the collaborative spirit of Poetic Translations, the exhibition opens and closes with two dance events choreographed by Seattle artist and Latin dance teacher, Vanessa Villalobos. Responding to both Hernandez’s paintings and Kaainoa’s words, these original dance pieces will interpret the creative process itself and use movement to evoke universal stories of love, longing, death and inspiration.

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FO R E W O R D BY A LL A N O LIV E R When William Hernandez showed me his work eight years ago, I knew that he was the real deal – an artist capable of translating abstract ideas into bold images with drama, humor, style, and technique. His show at Onda Gallery in 2010 – Between Places and Spaces – marked the transition between Lima, Peru, the city where he grew up and trained, and Portland, Oregon, where he started exhibiting as a professional.

I was involved in his 2013 solo show at ArtXchange Gallery, Milagro, in which he created a body of work that evoked his childhood and youth in Lima, placing his personages and settings in an almost spiritual world of memory, reflection, and nostalgia. The key painting of the series showed a young couple flying above The Lord of the Miracles procession, their relationship transcending all else.

William Hernandez’s newest body of work was born of his desire to investigate the universality of connection – the profound impact and importance of relationship and love. He looked to his own life as husband, father, friend, and artist for inspiration, and this exploration led him next door to his neighbor, Christa Kaainoa.

Christa teaches where William’s son goes to school and she is also a poet and writer. William and Christa and their families are part of a lively, multi-cultural Portland neighborhood with shops and galleries nearby.

If it hadn’t been for this neighborhood connection, the current show might not exist, but it is the artistic connection that inspired the paintings.

With no expectation of how or if they would be used, Christa gave William ten poems related to connection.

The topics ranged from poems about friends and family to poems about important places, and even death, and each poem included a brief explanation of when and why she wrote it. It was a gift, a gesture of artistic camaraderie and friendship. She was excited to see how a visual artist might picture her words. The result is greater than the sum of its parts, a vision of relationship and love that creates connections not only between William and Christa’s community, but also with the whole world.

Although William usually works without sketches, for this show the poems served as a starting point. William read and interpreted them with his unique sensibility and style. Christa’s words and William’s imagination and skill as a painter merge powerfully to create artwork that makes a statement about the value of connection.

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In one of the paintings relating to the poem Skeletons, a wolf in the closet seems relatively unthreatening, but the suspicious attitude of the woman is entirely different from the rollicking exchange in the poem.

Another painting, inspired by the same poem, includes an elephant in the closet. Is this the proverbial elephant in the room which we try to avoid? Even though there are many striking elements of fantasy in the paintings, William grounds the images in the here and now. The painting of kids in the blow-up pool, Fabric of Friendship and the multi-cultural friends in Spinners are wonderful examples of community unity.

The figures of the old man and the boy fishing together were inspired by The North Fork of the Santiam but also relate strongly to Blueprint for Grandfather’s Poem. The pensive woman with a beloved place reflected in her eyes connects to a line from the same North Fork poem, “She meets me with this sound that she invented.”

William’s Peruvian heritage and Christa’s Hawaiian connection converge mysteriously in the poem Flying and the paintings it inspired. Where Christa expresses the mother/daughter bond in a dialogue between a crow and a woman, William portrays an underwater fantasy with a whale, and also, a remarkable painting showing a boy with a crow in his head while an outstretched hand offers him a key.

There isn’t a direct correlation between the poems and the paintings, but there is a strong connection. That the heartfelt specifics of Christa’s poem to her father translates into the powerful fusion of man and nature in Tell Me About Your Father is a testament to both artists’ desire to create something universal.

Over the years I have known him, William has matured as an artist and evolved as a man. He has had to deal with adult realities, taking over a year to produce these paintings amidst the demands of parenting and teaching. But he has grown as an artist, bringing forth work that is bold, solid, consistently creative and beautiful.

Ultimately, his exhibition Poetic Translations brings two worlds together so that they can be shared with everyone. Poetry and paintings combine with passion, so that, as E.M. Forster declares, “both will be exalted and human love will be seen at its height.”

Allan Oliver, Founder and Former Director Onda Gallery, Portland, OR

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Flying: A Poem for Kaeli Black crow perches on the top branch of the tallest fir tree, secure amidst the swaying limbs.

Cocking her head left, then right, her ebony eyes observe the terrain below and she calls out, a long, sharp Ka – Ka– Beneath her, on the sidewalk, I pause to listen to the familiar greeting of my avian neighbor.

We seem so different, she – untethered, and I – so utterly terrestrial, but we breathe the same air, and my skin brushes the same wind through which she flies, and I live on the same earth as she, and so do you, the thought of which, in this moment, floods me with warm gratitude and joy.

Ka – she calls again, “Eli!” I shout into the sky.

Ka – she calls, “Eli!” I return.

And for a few frozen moments, she and I, together, sing the song of your name.

Sing it like the Hawaiian spirits did before you were a seed of consciousness, before your parents lived, before their parents lived, when only spirits lived, and they called you, Ka-eli.

Called your name into the wind knowing that it would ride the tuberose breeze into the future, an opal incantation, a promise of breath, your breath, your flesh, your wings, the spirits called you into being, Ka-eli.

Flying, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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And here, millenniums later, this crow and I sing your name, together, call and response, Ka-Eli Ka-Eli. You are Here!

Part of me, part crow, part spirit, part parents, part dusk of evening, muddy blue sky pink smudge, part crisp autumn air and rising half-moon.

The promise of days of love, of life, a destiny, unfolding fulfillment.

Crow sings Ka – I shout “Eli!” Crow sings Ka – I shout “Eli!” Never mind this city street, this broken sidewalk, this passing neighbor who can’t hear this song.

Even the crow herself wonders what and why I sing to her, but I know, and now you know…

Time does what time does…

Crow spreads her wings and flies from the fir tree toward the moon, black wings extended, eyes set ahead on the horizon.

And for a few frozen moments, she and I, together, sing the song of your name, 13 acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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Yes I Can, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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I’m Always Waiting For You, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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For M In the space between these lines you’ll see worn wood dining room tables and giant sunflowers in the garden, towering above our heads in late August.

In the spaces you’ll find wildflowers and fire lookouts, women in head scarves and art house movies.

Listen to the spaces and you’ll hear the heartbeat of mortar and pestle and fiddlers in the barn.

Tell the spaces to sing to you and they will.

Paint the spaces black as night and see how the sentences glow into constellations: the bull, the lion, the archer, and the virgin.

Read the spaces, not the words.

I want them to tell you everything there ever was to know about being loved.

A Secret Code, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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So, What?, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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Quilting We arrive to the weekend, eight separate women, each with scraps of work and love and life clinging to her like threads.

Breathe. Laugh. Talk.

Gold and blue and green stars fall right out of our mouths, stories spun and cut and pieced together over decades.

Soon, the floor of the great room is littered with stories – all the colors, vibrant and dull, weathered and fresh, patterned and plain, have fallen together, into a tapestry, an amazing work of art – the fabric of friendship.

The Letter, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, $2,200

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Connection of Love, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, $2,200

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For Dad And then there’s the smell of tomato plants, the only cologne my father ever wore, applied mid-morning by walking through the narrow garden that ran the length of our house, brushing against leaves and plants, leaning in to harvest firm red fruit.

In the garden, he wore faded jeans blemished with splashes of paint, and a worn dress shirt so old and faded the pinstripes barely showed, the cuffs rolled up to his elbows.

His brown boots, with yellow laces tied tight up to his ankles, were permanently caked with dirt and kept in the garage when not worn.

He traveled for work in the summer sometimes, in business suits and dress shoes, and when I was old enough to be trusted, he put me in charge of watering his garden while he was away.

I took the job seriously, and to my memory, no plants ever died on my watch.

Tell Me About Your Father, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,25028

Like my dad, I walked the rows of tomatoes, sometimes plucking one and eating it whole, red juice running down my chin, tangy sweetness on my tongue.

I picked and ate cucumbers and felt the tiny spikes of their skin on my skin.

I used a small red-handled spade to gently dig up weeds that hid beneath tender green lettuce leaves and the thicker, darker, curling leaves of spinach.

These solitary hours in the garden that began when I could count my age on my own two hands, rooted me to the land, just like those plants I tended.

The sound of water trickling from a hose and puddling in the slight well beneath a plant.

The fragrance of wet soil.

The bristly rustle of squash leaves and their sticky cleaving to my bare legs as I passed.

The company of green.

Once, a friend said, “Tell me about your father.”

And I said, “He smells like fresh tomatoes.

He sounds like water running through a hose.

He feels like a squash leaf.”

I don’t know if she understood…

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Mother Nature, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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Ode to Dave With pine boughs stripped from trees in a storm and sticky sap infused with dewdropped green grass, a shelter is constructed.

Sweet shelter!

Embroidered with wet fiber, dank, rich clay, damp feathers.

Clouds and sun meld and glisten through slats of woven branches.

Come in! Come in!

Escape the storm in my embrace.

Sweet kisses and loving whispers betray your metallic faรงade.

You are my sweet earthen shelter.

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My Sweet Earthen Shelter, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, $2,200

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Spinners We are spiders spinning concentric silk highways that extend out into the world.

We travel independently on delicate legs then trace strands back to center.

Our web liberates and binds.

It breaks and it can be repaired.

We have always known how to spin – even in mothers’ egg sac, we spun in our dreams, imagining one another and the world – so sticky and inviting.

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Spinners, acrylic on canvas, 52 x 60 inches, $4,000

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The North Fork of the Santiam Smooth, warm stones press into the arches of my bare feet as I stand alone on the beach, shifting my weight ever so slightly forward and back.

People pay big money for hot stone massages, but Stone and Sun – they give it for free.

“Just come in the summertime,” they say.

Before me, the river splashes by, an icy, ticklish burble that repeats like a steady heart beat – I am here I am here I am here.

Every time I stand on these banks, she meets me with this sound that she invented.

She Meets Me With This Sound That She Invented, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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At the river’s edge I lean in close.

Beneath the water’s surface, small grey fish, elongated raindrops, poke their noses upward, curiously, breaking the surface of the water with the tiniest pop of a bubble, then dart back to their school in the safety of the shadowy stones.

Brushed across the landscape, lush, towering pine and cedar, wear shawls and scarves of moss and lichen.

A kaleidoscope of green, shifting shape and hue with changing light.

God’s symphony: Breeze in Trees Minor.

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The Fabric of Friendship, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, $1,800

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The air is purer here.

Is it the elevation or is the space between molecules just a bit bigger than in the valley?

This air is medicine; breathe it in and you are healed.

Is this what I’ll see when I die?

Will I appear on this beach in the sun?

And is this sun the light they speak of?

Will I find you here too?

The trees are mirrors.

The river is a mirror.

The air is a mirror.

These stones are mirrors, mirrors.

This tadpole is a mirror.

I look into each one, and see in my own reflection that I am perfect too.

Just Come in the Summertime, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, $1,800

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Skeletons If I had skeletons in my closet instead of clothes, I would pull them out into my room and we would drink peppermint tea with milk and honey. There would be a wolf, hung together with wire and clamps; her polished teeth and fangs suspended in an eternal snarl, would protrude from powerful jaw bones, which would lead to spine, and legs dangling on one end beneath symmetrical rows of ribs and on the other end, beneath her pelvis and hips. I would get down on all fours and crouch next to her, howling my best howl, listening for her response, which would sometimes come, but usually only when the moon was full.

And there would be human skeletons too. One would sit on the floor with his legs outstretched, one ankle crossed over the other, his spine resting against the soft cotton of the overflowing bedspread. We would put records on the turntable – CSNY and Carole King, sometimes Queen, sometimes Pink Floyd, and I would say, “Hey, sing along! I love this song!” But he would never feel sure of his voice, and he would mostly just mouth the words, his teeth, like rows of chiclets, coming together and apart, together and apart with the movement of his jaw. I would tell the other skeleton, lying on her side in front of the laundry hamper, her elbow bent, head resting on her hand, “You are so funny! Why do you always look at me like that when I sing?” and she would just laugh and tell me I’m the funny one. Sometimes we would ride the wolf skeleton around my bedroom, her bones going clack clack clack with every step. But she’d be strong and she could hold me and the other skeletons too. We would take turns, and it would be like riding ponies at the petting zoo, only wilder and a little more scary.

My Morning Routine, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 inches, $2,950

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Her Intimate Friend, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, $2,200

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Heather’s Poem We wrote this poem for you in invisible ink.

The words – too personal, too powerful to lay out for just anyone to see.

We mined each word from heart-shaped crystal caves.

It took us twenty years.

And then we stood around this page, mounds of shimmering powder held above it in cupped hands, and counted backwards from ten.

With sweet gentle breath, we blew the sparkling powder onto the page.

It made the most beautiful poem for you!

Squint just a little and relax your gaze.

You’ll be able to read the words beneath these words.

They’ll probably make you weep with joy so don’t look at them too often.

People will wonder why you’re always crying and smiling.

We wrote it, though, and it made us weep too, so don’t worry about reading it when you’re with us.

The Most Beautiful Poem for You, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,25046

Blueprint for Grandfather’s Poem It may begin with the last time I saw him, lying on his back in a hospital bed, an old man in a small room.

His body was still, but his hands reached up, holding tightly to the sides of his skull as if to verify his existence with his fingertips, to confirm he was still alive and in a body, not yet floating away.

Or maybe it begins with cornmeal pancakes and orange zest, or hand-stirred vanilla milkshakes with nutmeg on top, or the church choir and the way grandfather unlocked the cage of his heart when he sang, his voice rising above the others as if a beam of light travelled from his mouth straight to Heaven.

But maybe it’s better to begin with Thanksgiving and photocopied hymns, selected by grandfather for both convocation and prayer, and the way he asked each of us to read them, in turn, year by year, or the way he offered the wishbone, dried in the oven, to my brother and me, the way we pulled it apart with our pinkies.

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Beginning of the End, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 inches, $1,250

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Or perhaps grandfather’s poem begins with hunting for thunder eggs at Road’s End, with young, optimistic hands chiseling away at crumbling sandstone hillsides, with the glowing hope of discovering that rough and unassuming sphere a globe that when cracked open reveals polished maps of earth and time.

Stone orbs not so different from grandfather – rather crusty on the outside, and unassuming, but blooming inside with glossy charts of a lifetime – splashes of Vashon and the ocean reflecting blue, bolts of rhodium and platinum mapping his career, concentric rings of family, each encapsulating the next – Magruder and Grace – Ken and Fielder – Judy – Janie, Mac, and Sandy – And you here, all of you – all polished agates and future fossils, all reflected in the thunder egg of grandfather’s life.

Reflections for the New One, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 48 inches, $4,000

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AB O U T T H E A R TI S T William Hernandez is a Portland-based painter whose artwork creates a bridge spanning his past traditions and memories to his life today as an artist, family man and Peruvian living in the Pacific Northwest. His surreal subjects and graphic, illustrative style creates layered narratives infused with lingering emotions from whimsy to melancholy.

Trained as a painter at Lima’s Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (1995-2002), Hernandez worked as a fine artist and graphic designer for public and international institutions in Lima before settling in Portland in 2009. He is an active artist, teacher and organizer in the Pacific Northwest. He was one of the organizers for the first Intercambio de Artistas Latinos (Latin American Artists Exchange), which aims to create a network of artists in the Northwest to share ideas, expression and art. He has been an exhibitor, artist-in-residence and instructor at Milagros Theater in Portland, a hub of the regional Latinx community. As a teacher, he is dedicated to introducing the arts to all ages, from working as a Fine Art Painting instructor at the Museum of Art in Lima, to creating bilingual Spanish/English children’s workshops and organizing painting classes for immigrant workers at VOZ Workers Rights Education Project in Portland.

Hernandez’s vibrant paintings have been exhibited in galleries and cultural centers from Peru to Portland, including Instituto Cultural Peruano Norteamericano, Centro Cultural de Espana, Concordia University, Onda Gallery in Portland and ArtXchange Gallery in Seattle. For multiple years, he participated in the U.S. Embassy’s Noche de Arte: the largest art exhibition in Peru, a show that generates funds for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Hernandez’s artworks are in private collections in Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Guatemala, Peru, Spain and the United States.

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CO N T R I B U TO R S

Christa Kaainoa believes poetry is definitely not dead. She teaches English in Portland, Oregon, and is constantly behind on the upkeep of the centuryold farmhouse she shares with her husband and children. Her poetry has been featured in VoiceCatcher, Poeming Pigeons, and The Timberline Review. She is a graduate of the Attic Institute’s Atheneum Master Writing Program and is currently working on a memoir about the sudden death of her first husband.

Allan Oliver is a designer and founder of the former Onda Gallery in Portland. Oliver began his professional career in Latin America, then formed a graphic design and public relations agency specializing in work for non-profit organizations, as well as merging computer design and art in a business creating hand-printed textiles for home decor. He later founded his gallery in Portland’s Alberta Street district, exhibiting Latin American artists in the Pacific Northwest.

Vanessa Villalobos is a professional dance artist. She has worked in commercial and competitive dance with some film appearances including Walt Disney’s Enchanted and MadHot Ballroom. She opened her business, BALORICO LLC., in 2009 to offer dance residencies in elementary and middle schools. She creates many opportunities for the widespread community to experience live Latin dance and music. Her choreographic voice is informed by a deep connection to her Peruvian heritage and immigrant family’s American stories.

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T HAN K YO U F R OM TH E A R T I S T This show is of special importance to me because I feel my work is shifting to a new level, creating opportunities and a new creative vision reflective of a time of great transition in my life. It truly would not have been possible without my amazing support system. I dedicate this show to my family.

Thank you to my wife, Erin, for your support and the confidence you had in me from the start.

Luka and Julian, you are my inspiration. Thank you for your sense of humor, your spirit, and your understanding when Dad needs to paint.

A special thanks to my parents, Luis and Silvia, who traveled from Lima, Peru, to help with the kids and household duties during the final phase of this production.

Barbara and Doug - your good nature, generosity and constant support is the greatest gift. Thank you.

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Christa, thank you for entrusting me with your poems without hesitation. From artist to artist, our creative connection has fueled my process and I am thankful for our friendship.

Thanks to Allan for your willingness to take part in this collaborative journey. Your insightful words capture the essence of this show and my growth and development as an artist. I am thankful for our shared history.

Thank you also to Vanessa, an excellent artist who beautifully interprets my paintings in movement.

To Tekoah, owner of Pearl Gallery and Framing in Portland, I am in gratitude to you for the frames that provide the structure to the majority of this show.

To the ArtXchange family – Cora, Lauren and Clarissa – thank you for your flexibility, patience, professionalism and confidence in my art. I feel fortunate to be part of the ArtXchange family.

William Hernandez June 2018

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EDUCATION 1995 - 2002 1998 - 1999

Professional Degree in painting and drawing, Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Lima, Peru Art workshop “El Color Joven” Scholarship, Chilean Dep. of Culture, Puerto Varas, Chile

TEACHING EXPERIENCE / ART WORKSHOPS 2018 – current SUN Art Instructor at Rigler and Woodland Elementary School, Portland, OR 2016 - 2017 Catlin Gabel / Miracle Theatre / Portland Mercado, Portland, OR 2013 - 2014 Art Instructor in Painting, VOZ Workers Rights Education Project, Portland, OR 2012 - 2013 LAX Ideal Art workshops, Miracle Theatre, Portland, OR 2007 - 2009 Middle School art teacher, Colegio Privado San Felipe Neri 2006 - 2009

Fine Art teacher in Painting and Drawing, Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

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Poetic Translations: A Visual Journey, ArtXchange Gallery, Seattle, WA Artist-in-residence exhibition, Milagro Theatre, Portland, OR Artist of the week - Hillsboro Tuesday Art Night Market, Hillsboro, OR Enchanted Lives, Trinity Cathedral, Portland, OR Step Into Spring, Stonehenge Studios, Portland, OR Teach Me to Believe, Pearl Gallery & Framing, Portland, OR Hernandez & Moore, Guardino Gallery, Portland, OR Hernandez show, Miro Tea, Seattle, WA Miracles, ArtXchange Gallery, Seattle, WA Dance for a Dollar, Miracle Theatre, Portland, OR Selling Dreams, US Bank, Portland, OR Chromatic Mixtures II, Pearl Gallery & Framing, Portland, OR La Melancolia, Angst Gallery, Vancouver, WA Kutisunchis, The Blind Insect Gallery, Portland, OR El Numero Seis, Stonehenges Studios, Portland, OR El Mejor, Pearl Gallery & Framing, Portland, OR Sol y Luna, Miracle Theatre, Portland, OR Es Tiempo de Regresar, TUPAI / Andina Restaurant, Portland, OR El Viajero, Brasserie Four, Walla Walla, WA Between Places and Spaces, Onda Gallery, Portland, OR Art Conversation in Autumn, Common Grounds Coffeehouse, Portland, OR

CURATED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2018

Migration Stories, Multnomah Art Center, Portland, OR 2017

Latino Artist Exhibition LAX/Ideal 2017, Concordia University Library, Portland, OR

LAX/Ideal 2017, Oregon Society of Artists, Portland, OR 2016

Latino Artist Exhibition LAX/Ideal 2016, PCPA, Portland, OR

Mythos, Arxchange Gallery, Seattle, WA

From Our Past To Our Present, Collins Gallery Central Library, Portland, OR

S’Agapo: Expressions of Love, Arxchange Gallery, Seattle, WA

Runway to Peru - Fashion for Conservation, Metropolist, Seattle WA

A Melange International Art Exhibit, Concordia University Library, Portland, OR 2015

Latino Artist Exhibition LAX/Ideal 2015, PCPA, Portland, OR

Love of Portland, People Art of Portland Gallery, Portland, OR

Art for Everyone, Stonehenge Studios, Portland, OR 2014

Art Gets Political, Concordia University Library, Portland, OR

CAP Art Auction 2014 - Silent Action Selection, Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR

Artist Among Us, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR

LAX Ideal- Latino Art Show Exhibition, Portland’5, Portland, OR

Male Form 5, Angst Gallery, Vancouver, WA 2013

Home, ArtXchange Gallery. Seattle, WA

Woman Icons, Gallery (m)ini, Portland, OR

An Artist A Day, Muse Art Design, Portland, OR

Lake Oswego Art Festival, Lake Oswego, OR

Artist among Us, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR

CAP Art Action 2013 - Silent Action Selection, Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR

Celebrating the Creator’s Diversity, Concordia University Library, Portland, OR 2012

8th Annual Latino Cultural Festival, Hillboro, OR

Artist Among Us, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR 2011

Viva la Comunidad, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

The Big 200 Art Show, Settlement Galleries, Portland, OR

Altares del Día de los Muertos, Miracle Theatre, Portland, OR

2010

10” X 10”, Art Media Frame Shop, Portland, OR

Facing Fear, Launch Pad Gallery, Portland, OR

The Pink Project, Splenderporium Gallery, Portland, OR

, Grow Gallery, Splenderporium, US Bank, Portland, OR 2009

Mixed the Politics of Hybrids Identities, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR 2008

Noche de Arte 2008, Puericultorio Pérez Araníbar, Peru 2007

15 Artistas de Espacio Exhibe, Coco de Mer, Peru

Noche de Arte 2007, Museo de la Nación, Peru 2006

Menu 604, Casa de la Cultura Municipalidad de San Miguel, Peru

Expuestos, Sala Belisario Suárez, Peru

Percepciones Urbanas, Centro Cultural de Bellas Artes de Lima, Peru 2005

LAB2 (FASE2) Centro Cultural Ricardo Palma

Entorno al Quijote, Galería Municipal Pancho Fierro

San Miguel Arcángel, Sala Belisario Suarez Miraflores 2004

Cuaderno de dibujo, Centro Cultural de España

1/10 Grabados La Ruptura del Silencio, Centro Cultural de Bellas Artes

Proyecto Laboratorio, Centro Cultural de Bellas Artes 2003

Festival de Arte Contemporáneo, Barranco 2000

Jóvenes Artistas del Nuevo Milenio, ICPNA Lima 1999

Dibujando, Galería John Harriman In Situ, Taller de Arte “El color joven” Puerto Varas, Chile AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS 2017

Arts Equity & Access Grant Juror for RACC Regional Arts & Culture Council

Wilsonville Art Festival. Juror 2016

Creando Visiones, bilingual art workshop for kids. Project granted by RACC 2013 Honorable Mention, Lake Oswego Festival for the Arts 2011

Organizer for the first LAX Ideal (Latin American Artists Exchange) 2007 - 2008

Artist selected in Noche de Arte, an exhibition organized by the Embassy of the United

States of America 2006

Curator of the International exhibition PERCEPCIONES URBANAS with the collaboration

of the Germany Embassy in Lima, Peru 2002

Organizer of the I Congreso de las Artes “¿Adónde vamos?” exploring the role of the

Peruvian artist” Museo de Arte de Lima 1988

Second Prize in “V Concurso de Catálogos” Class of 1988 ENSABAP

Honorable Mention, Drawing 1993

First Prize in drawing and painting contest “Primer Festival de la Juventud por la Paz” COMMISSIONED ARTWORK 2016 -2017

Liturgy Training Publications of Chicago / 37 commissioned paintings for a book Artist- in - Residence at Milagro Theatre / 4 paintings for their main productions 2011 - 2016

Dia de los Muertos, Altares. Miracle Theatre 2012

Mural for Human Solutions, Gresham 2008

Mural for the 20th Anniversary of the AECID Centro Cultural de Espana, Lima 2003

Contemporary Art Festival, Barranco PUBLICATIONS 2017

2014

Keeping the Seasons / Celebremos los tiempos liturgicos; The Way of Faith The Art of Reconciliation 2013 show by LeRoy Goertz Concordia University, Portland OR

MEDIA 2017

OPB Art Beat featured William Hernandez artwork. Season 19 Episode #1902

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Walters Cultural Art Center, Hillsboro, OR Human Solutions, Gresham, OR MEJORC, Portland, OR Chilean Dep. of Culture, Puerto Varas, Chile Hernandez artworks are in private collections in Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Guatemala, Peru, Spain and the United States.

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512 1st Avenue S. Seattle, WA 98104 206.839.0377 www.artxchange.org Cora Edmonds GALLERY DIRECTOR Lauren Davis ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Clarissa Gines EXHIBITIONS MANAGER Cover: Tell Me About Your Father, acrylic on cavnas, 24 x 24 inches. © May 2018 No part of this publication may be reproduced without consent from ArtXchange Gallery and the artist.

Images courtesy of the artist and ArtXchange Gallery Catalog design by Clarissa Gines

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