SAM HERNÁNDEZ: Hernández received his BA in Sculpture from California State University at Hayward in1970 and his MFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin in 1974. He has exhibited in many museums and galleries, both regionally and internationally. Well known for his innovative use of wood to achieve lyrical, expressive abstractions, Hernandez uses a broad range of tools, including African adzes, Japanese saws, Native American crook knives, and high-powered sandblasters. His awards include a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Senior Fullbright Scholars Award. He has taught at Santa Clara University since 1977, and served as Chair of the Art and Art History Department from 1980-86.

ABOUT | Artist Statement
I have been a sculptor for over 35 years. My early mature work, narrative-based and concerned with totemic and geometric qualities, was iconographically complex, referencing a multiplicity of cultural references as diverse as traditional/indigenous arts, Picasso and Brancusi, hot rods, Surrealism, and Bay Area Funk. Balancing milled lumber with naturally-occurring forms, my imagery was often anthropomorphic, frequently humorous, and occasionally enigmatic; translucent colors enhanced the depth and complexity of my carefully crafted surfaces. Gradually, my palette deepened as I heightened visual tension through asymmetry, formal contradiction, and gestural animation. In the 1990s, my interest in Chinese scholars' stones paralleled my works' new, more lyrical direction. Experimenting with a range of forms and finishes (as well as with technique, as I now often sandblast my works in a more reductive manner) I invoke processes of intuition and meditative exploration, exposing my art – as well as myself and my audience – to more open-ended possibilities. Remaining characteristically based in abstraction, my work is now more instinctive in development and expressionist in tone; I look to express the human edge: the smell, the touch, the physicality that reflects my imprint on the varied media I explore.