Nadia Zamora Hernandez (she/her) was born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and immigrated with her family to Canada in 2009. She is an emerging artist whose work is inspired by the human body as well as exploring the nuances and complexities of lived experiences. Her art fosters personal healing; she is driven by love, and by rage. She holds a BFA from the University of Alberta (Spring 2025)
My work explores care in its raw authenticity, its simplicity and ritualistic embrace. This includes the complexities and nuances of feeling human, the slow journey towards reclamation, and the conversations I have with the translator of my experiences; the body. I am fascinated by the vigor with which our bodies keep us safe. My work is guided by the unspoken mutual understanding that exists between those affected by gender-based violence, specifically the comprehension of the necessity of protection.
The main subjects of my work are the women that have taught me what it means to love and be loved: my sister, my mother, my grandmothers, my aunts, my friends, and my lovers. My works are love letters to them, capturing moments of tenderness and softness while encouraging rage and anger. We are, all of us, haunted by the identity we inhabit and the manner in which we navigate the intricacies of our personal journeys. There is an unknown language in which we converse about the necessity of caregiving, especially for those of us that share the experience of losing safety within our own home. My work aims to depict the careful attention my body places to the things it touches and its efforts to hide what has been tainted. By placing imagined figures and objects within specific environments, I hint at and reveal pieces of personal stories of intimacy and shame.
I mainly reference my own photographs as well as photographs taken by my mother. I aim to push myself to expand my visual language and find a form of marrying different finishes to highlight and communicate a range of stories and emotions. I strive to maintain the vibrancy of colour without overpowering silent moments within the same piece. Through making work I am putting on display the embodied traces of painful experiences and the tenderness and care our bodies carry.
