Brianna L. Hernández is a Chicana artist, curator, and death doula guided by socially-engaged practices. In the studio, she creates multi-media installations focused on end-of-life care, grief, and mourning rituals based on lived experience, cultural research, and collaborations with peers including death education workshops.
Hernández proudly serves as director of curation and board secretary of Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio on the Shinnecock Indian Reservation in Southampton, NY and as assistant curator at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, NY. Additionally, she is the board treasurer at Walker’s Point Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, and is a committee member for the Gente Chicana/SOYmos Chicanos Arts Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.
She was selected for Hyperallergic's 2023-2024 Emily Hall Tremaine Journalism Fellowship for Curators and published three articles, one in the form of an online exhibition of her work on the intersections of art and death.
At MacDowell, Hernández developed new technical elements and conceptual framework for her series, "Aquí Descansamos," composed of ephemeral funerary artifacts and rituals. Hernández also expanded her research to write a book on art and death based on her ongoing studio practice and curatorial work.
Portrait by Jeremy Dennis
