REYNA HERNANDEZ is a painter and muralist who feels a deep connection to her homelands and indigenous roots - Reyna grew up in southeast South Dakota and is Ihaŋktoŋwaŋ Nakota (Yankton Sioux Tribal Member). Throughout her work, Reyna utilizes mixed media to investigate cultural/identity hybridity in relation to her Indigenous bloodlines and western influences. Reyna’s work examines the complexities of her relationship to culture and place and is heavily inspired by the many star quilters in her family history. Her work is an exploration of Lakota, Nakota & Dakota traditions and symbolism, and the many ways that western civilization has impacted indigenous expression.

Reyna has exhibited work throughout the United States and was selected as a featured artist in I AM: Exploring Identity Through the Self-Portrait, an exhibit in association with the 2015 Guerrilla Girls Take Over the Twin Cities. She was the recipient of the Oscar Howe Curatorial Fellowship in 2015 and has continued to discuss her research while visiting colleges and classrooms at New Mexico State University (2019), Colorado College (2018), and Massachusetts College of Art & Design (2023). Hernandez was the guest curator at All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis MN, for the third installment of the gallery’s Bring Her Home Exhibition Series; A series highlighting the ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Hernandez’s installment, Bring Her Home: Sacred Womxn of Resistance was on view from 12/2020- 02/2021.

Reyna received her B.A in English and B.F.A in Studio Arts at the University of South Dakota in 2016. She was recently awarded the 2021 Northern Plains Indian Artist in Residence at The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD where she also lives and works.