An artist working across a variety of media, Liz Hernández is invested in the history and meaning of materials, in particular those central to Mexican craft traditions. Making objects that draw on memories of her childhood and the vernacular of Mexico City, where she was born, Hernández often depicts subjects inspired by ordinary rituals of her familial life in combination with ancestral and supernatural symbolism. The woman in My Secret Permission, with eyes painted in gold leaf over her face and body, counters the viewer’s gaze. Cursive words carved into the background calling out

“permanent solitudes,” “all the fears I have,” and “what I once had and lost” reveal that the protection she conjures is not just directed at her surroundings but also disturbances from within.