Opening reception: Thursday, Feb 27, 6 – 9pm

Exhibition dates: February 28 – March 7, 2025

On view gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 5pm, and by appointment by contacting [email protected]

Roski Graduate Gallery (Los Angeles Arts District) 1262 Palmetto St, Los Angeles, CA 90013

More information here: https://roski.usc.edu/elias-hernandez/

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Midnight Fantasies is an exhibition exploring the artist’s world-building tale of twisted mythologies and legends. Influenced by painters, video games, and films, the work explores the artist’s ancestry to Fine Art influences and family traditions. The exhibition also discusses displacement and immigration and how family storytelling has helped inspire his world-building process.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Elias Hernandez is an American Latino artist from Sunnyvale, California who works in painting, ceramics, drawing and printmaking. He is a USC Roski MFA Candidate (‘25) and received his BA in Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (‘20) with a minor in Arts Education.

His work captures personal snapshots of his childhood memories through dreamscapes, fantasies, and narratives. Much of his work is heavily composed of exploring new textures, surrealness, and characters that embody older work to create new fantasy worlds that bring sentimental remembrance. Now interested in merging self-identity exploration and spirituality, he hopes to bridge new visuals and scenes that capture his life as a first-generation Latino artist.

Hernandez has had a two-person show at Moth Belly gallery and has been included in group exhibitions at Good Mother Gallery, The Trophy Room LA, and Known Studio. He is the recipient of the Aubrey Penny painting scholarship at UCLA. His work was included in New American Paintings Magazine in 2022.