Alanna Hernandez (b. 1988) grew up on Cape Cod, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2010, where she earned a B.A. in Middle East Studies. During this time she gained some formal art training, as well as education in history, religion, and language. Her work combines her formal education in the arts and humanities, exploration of spirituality, and self-taught art skills. She has lived in Midcoast Maine since 2018. She has shown work in London and New York, and recently finished a residency at Monson Arts in Maine.
Statement
Alanna creates abstract work that explores trauma and connection through an embodied lens. She is interested in how trauma lives in the body, how it interrupts the flow of life, and how its impact echoes across communities and generations. Her work investigates the complexities of human relationships — the ways power, compromise, and intimacy shape our inner and outer worlds.
Using abstract ribbon-like forms, she creates visual metaphors for emotional dynamics. These flowing shapes are often pushed, pulled, interrupted, or entangled — revealing moments of tension, resistance, or surrender. Ribbons twist, split, converge, and spiral in a visual choreography of give and take.
Her drawings are built slowly through meditative layers of crosshatched colored pencil and wax pastel. This process produces soft, textured surfaces that invite viewers to look closely, slow down, and remain present. Through this work, Alanna offers a space for emotional resonance — a quiet unfolding of memory, darkness, and the possibility of light.
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