Illustrator Exporting Area of Hidden Objects When Exporting To PNG

Hello,

I am having an issue with illustrator when exporting some artwork to png. My AI file has several pieces of artwork in one file. I used to be able to hide all of the artwork I did not want exported, and then export the remaining work to png with no problem. Now when I hide all the unwanted artwork and then export the desired piece to png, the png exports the desired artwork along with the empty space where the hidden artwork is. I hope my explanation makes sense, but does anyone know how I can resolve this issue?

Thanks!