
Nadia Hernández is a Venezuelan-born, Melbourne-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice critically engages with themes of memory, memorialisation, identity, and place within a socio-political context. Drawing upon her lived experience as a woman situated within and beyond the Venezuelan diaspora, Hernández’s work challenges dominant narratives surrounding migration, exile, and displacement. Her practice spans textiles, painting, sculpture, sound, installation, and collaborative methods, forming a distinct visual and conceptual language that speaks to the layered complexity of diasporic experience.
Central to Hernández’s approach is a commitment to collaboration and community engagement. She creates works that are polyphonic in nature, drawing from song, poetry, conversation, and storytelling, where family, friends, and local Venezuelan communities often become active participants. These shared processes unfold across multiple registers: visual form, collective learning, dialogue, and archival research. Hernández views art-making as a space of connection, where personal histories, political realities, and cultural memory are given form through many voices.
Her sustained and critically engaged practice is evidenced by significant achievements, including her selection for the 2024 Fountainhead Residency in Miami, a major public commission for the Oslo Freedom Forum in partnership with the Human Rights Foundation, and finalist positions for the Ramsay Art Prize (2023) and the Sir John Sulman Prize (2023, 2024). Her work has been presented in major exhibitions including Para verte mejor, en todo tiempo, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2026); TarraWarra Biennial 2025: We Are Eagles, TarraWarra Museum of Art (2025), Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong (2025) and Like A Wheel That Turns: The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (2022).

Para verte mejor, en todo tiempo (To see you better, at all times)
2026
Art Gallery of New South Wales
installation view
Photo: Jenni Carter

El Sembrador detrás de los cerros y los montes, a lo lejos... el sembrador me abrió el camino / The sower behind the hills and the mountains, in the distance... the sower cleared my path
2024
oil, pencil and permanent marker on linen
198.0 × 170.0 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

En todo tiempo (At all times)
2024
textile and sound based installation
panel 5/6, dimensions variable

'En todo tiempo (At All Times)'
2024
Oslo Freedom Forum 2024, Outside the Oslo Konserthus
installation view
Photo: Istvan Virag

Naranja con heliconias / Orange with heliconias
2025
oil on linen
101.6 × 91.4 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

En la profundidad de la bruma
2025
STATION Naarm/Melbourne
Photo: Simon Strong

Tu y Ella / You and Her
2024
pencil and oil on linen
101.6 × 76.2 cm

En todo tiempo (At all times)
2024
'Various Small Fires' 2025, Gertrude, Melbourne
te × tile and sound based installation, panel 4/6

El Segundo Verso
2025
Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong
installation view
Image: Kitmin Lee

Con la punta de los dedos / With the tips of your fingers
2021
oil on linen
102.0 × 84.0 cm

Magdalena, Luchita, Marisol
2024
oil, pencil and permanent marker on linen
101.6 × 91.4 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

Nuestro Consuelo, Mi Consuelo
2023
installation view
Document Photography

Detrás del sol esperan (el cardenal y el turpial) / Behind the sun, they wait (the cardinal and the turpial)
2025
oil, pencil and permanent marker on linen
101.6 × 91.4 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

Con la punta de los dedos (With the tips of your fingers)
2021
installation view

Como el sol y toda su energía (Like the sun and all its energy)
2020
wool, cotton, linen, oil stick, acrylic, flashe, ribbon, grommets and rope
dimensions variable

Frieze Seoul
2024
installation view
Photo: Kyoungtae Kim

‘En Todo Tiempo (At All Times)’
2024 - 2025
TarraWarra Biennial 2025: We Are Eagles, TarraWarra Museum of Art
installation view
Photo: Thomas McCammon

Gato asustado y polilla caniche / Frightened cat and poodle moth
2024
oil, pencil, crayon and permanent marker on linen
101.6 × 91.4 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

Porque con la punta de los dedos se hacen cosas delicadas / Because with the tip of your fingers delicate things are made
2021
paper cut
71.0 × 90.0 cm, framed

Cada pintor es buena noticia (que si vamos, que se van; no alzar el brazo arriba o detrás) / Every painter is good news (that if we go, they leave; do not raise your arm above or behind)
2023
oil on linen
197.0 × 137.0 cm
Photo: Simon Strong

Pesadilla #2 / Nightmare #2
2021
oil on linen
46.0 × 61.0 cm

Speech Pattens: Nadia Hernández and Jon Campbell
2022
installation view
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth

Protegida, nos llaman (tiernos, raspados, semi-licuados) / Protected, they call us (tender, scraped, semi-blended)
2021
oil, flashe, acrylic, felt, cotton, and ribbon on linen
2 parts, total: 215.0 × 150.0 cm appro ×

Con la punta de los dedos (With the tips of your fingers)
2021
installation view

Entre Todo, Todxs
2020
installation view