Moth Belly Gallery: Joel Hernandez – At Least We’re Damned Together (opening reception)

On Saturday, June 6, 2026, Moth Belly Gallery presents At Least We’re Damned Together, a solo exhibition of new sculptural artwork by San Francisco based artist Joel Hernandez. The show marks Hernandez’s most personal body of work to date, an exploration of the power of emotional kinship in a turbulent time defined by societal strife.

About the Exhibition
At Least We’re Damned Together gathers a new collection of paper-mache sculptures and masks made over the past year, a period in which Hernandez found himself, like many, navigating waves of grief, anger, joy, and disbelief all in quick succession. The exhibition’s title is both revelation and acceptance, when finding yourself in the worst case scenario seeing that you’re not alone in those feelings provides space for stronger emotional kinship. A refusal to be crushed by the weight of it all, and an insistence that the only way through is together.
Hernandez has spent more than a decade building a visual language around the mask, not as concealment but as revelation. His handcrafted figures, created with one piece of paper at a time, draw on the iconography of Mexican folk art while addressing the specific weight of being a Gay Mexican-American Immigrant during this time in America.
The work doesn’t promise resolution. What it offers instead is company, a room full of figures in the midst of those feelings and the relief that comes from finding strength in that collective experience.

Artist Statement
I like to think that there are better days ahead, but I’m also too aware of the difficult shared emotions we’re all going through given the chaotic times in which we live. Anger and despair can sometimes feel like waves crashing over our heads, and at the same time, joy and love can feel equally strong and important in these moments. In a time that feels like we’re facing crisis after crisis alone, I want people to know we are experiencing this together, and to hold on to loved ones. All we have is each other. These feelings can come like waves that scatter us throughout the vast ocean, or wash us back to shore. The title of this show “At Least We’re Damned Together” is not a surrender to a dark inevitable, but an exploration of finding silver linings through difficult times.
Joel Hernandez

About the Artist
Joel Hernandez is a San Francisco based sculptor whose practice centers on the mask as metaphor, an object of revelation, ritual, and belonging. Drawing on his experience as a gay Mexican-American, Hernandez constructs handcrafted paper-mache figures that address tribalism, pageantry, and the everyday struggles of daily life. His work synthesizes Mexican folk art traditions with contemporary figuration, producing objects that are simultaneously intimate and communal.
Hernandez’s work has been exhibited at the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), Museo de las Américas (Denver), and La Luz de Jesús Gallery (Los Angeles). He has been featured twice in The New York Times Style Magazine, including the Mexico edition’s profile “The Art of Fragility,” as well as in California Home and Design and international publications in Japan and France.
“Masks that do not conceal but reveal, creatures that carry the innocence of play and the melancholy of memory.”
The New York Times Style Magazine, Mexico Edition

About Moth Belly Gallery
Moth Belly is an artist owned and operated gallery, community event space, and arts media platform based in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. Started by local artists John Vochatzer and KT Seibert, it was founded in the fall of 2020 and has been open to the public with monthly exhibits and more since October of 2021.