Born on the Lower East Side and raised in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Sylvia Hernandez’s love affair with art dates back to high school when she discovered a talent for drawing and painting while attending the High School of Art & Design. As a celebrated and self-taught master quilter today, she is able to pinpoint how illustration brought her to her current fascination with fabric and sewing machines. Sylvia creates timeless, handcrafted works that address community and human rights issues. She has exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally as a part of a number of high profile art exhibitions including Brooklyn Quilts Show, Made in New York Quilt Show, the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama, We Are the Story: A Visual Response to Racism in Minneapolis, Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories in the Fine Arts Museum of Boston, and recently in the Skirball Cultural Center in LA and the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in Florida.

Her work has appeared in multiple publications including the New York Times. She is the former president of the Quilters of Color of NYC and the former co-president of the Brooklyn Quilters Guild. She is also a member of the Women of Color Network and is currently a teaching artist at El Puente Academy of Peace and Justice HS. She is the recipient of a two-year grant from Creatives Rebuild NYC. She has quilts in the private collection of Spike Lee and Dr Carolyn Mazloom.