Esther Hernandez is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist based in Denver, Colorado. She is known for creating installation and performance art that sets up interactive, creative experiences for the viewer. Esther has been a resident artist at Redline and Platteforum, and her work has been featured by the Denver Art Museum at Untitled in 2019 and Arthyve's Archives as Muse program debut. She was also awarded a Red Bull microgrant in 2020. In addition to her own art, Esther has worked with young people at the MCA through their "Failure Lab" and "Creator's Studio" programs, mentored girls at Resilience Rising, and served as Associate Director at Platteforum, where she managed an international artist residency, youth program, and podcast. Currently, she works at Union Hall as Chief Curator.
I’m a multimedia artist inspired by the liberatory power of play. For me, playing is an act of self-reclamation—when we play, we leave behind our anxieties, expectations, and traumas and enter a kind of multisensory flow state where we feel fully present, even at peace. My early work drew upon performance art, social practice, and Situationist principles to achieve this. I organized spectacles and impromptu community happenings that explored human connection and delight. Now I make objects—kinetic, interactive sculptures—inspired by the playful, uncanny way animation, cartoons, and puppets mimic, critique, and mirror human experience. I want people to engage their senses when they see my work. I want them to re-connect with lost pieces of themselves. I want them to leave feeling curious, awake, and alive.
We are fully human only while playing, and we play only when we are human in the truest sense of the word – Rudolph Steiner