Teresita Fernández (b. 1968, Miami, FL, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is best known for her prominent public installations and experiential large-scale sculptures that evoke striking landscapes. Her work, often inspired by natural wonders—meteor showers, the aurora borealis, cloud formations, fire, and the night sky—invites an individualized experience of the work and the space it occupies. Fernández places particular importance in her choice of medium, playing with the limitations of materials and employing those such as gold, graphite, and other minerals that have complicated histories often tied to colonialism. All of her work, from her immersive installations to her small graphite panels, is characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking. In 2015, Fernández installed her largest public art project to date, Fata Morgana, in New York’s Madison Square Park. The work was composed of six mirrored canopies suspended above the park’s central lawn, and its title refers to the visible yet illusory line that hovers right above the horizon. In using metal to achieve the effect of a natural floating apparition, Fernández challenges the inherent characteristics of the material.
For her 2017 exhibition at Lehmann Maupin New York, titled, Fire (America), Fernández presented a 16-foot glazed ceramic panel depicting a nocturnal image of fire, a series of burned, laser-cut landscapes on paper, and a site-specific installation that resembled a horizon line composed of charred lump charcoal applied directly to the gallery walls. In these works, Fernandéz references the “slash-and-burn” technique used by Native Americans to create land for farming through the deliberate burning of forests, a process that essentially designed the American landscape. Using the universal image of fire as her motif, and the scorched residue of wood as her medium, Fernández contemplates the environmental and social history of America.
Fernández received a BFA from Florida International University, Miami, in 1990 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, in 1992. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY (2017); Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA (2014); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL (2011); Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH (2011); USF Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (2009); and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2005). She has produced a number of site-specific commissions including Double Glass River, Grace Farms, New Canaan, CT (2015); Fata Morgana, Madison Square Park, New York (2015); Golden (Panorama), Aspen Art Museum, CO (2014); Nocturnal (Navigation), United States Coast Guard, Washington, DC (2013); Stacked Waters,Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, TX (2009); Starfield, AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX (2009); Blind Blue Landscape, Benesse Art Site, Naoshima, Japan (2009); and Seattle Cloud Cover, Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, WA (2006). Select group exhibitions featuring her work include Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami (2017); Beyond the Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC (2017); Cuban Forever Revisited, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; A Material Legacy: The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection of Contemporary Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (2016); Cuban America: An Empire State of Mind, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY (2014); Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, Smithsonian Art Museum, Washington, DC (2013-2014); and Pattern: Follow The Rules, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, MI; traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO (2013). Fernández’s work is featured in numerous international public and private collections, including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
In 2017, Fernández was elected to be a National Academician by the National Academy Museum & School, New York. She was the 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of a number of rewards including the Aspen Award for Art in 2013, the 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award in 1999. Appointed by President Obama, she was the first Latina to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a 100-year-old federal panel that advises the president and Congress on national matters of design and aesthetics.
特雷西塔·費爾南德斯(1968年生於美國邁阿密)分別在美國佛羅裏達國際大學和弗吉尼亞聯邦大學取得美術學士學位和碩士學位。她是一位概念藝術家,尤以公共雕塑和非常規的材料應用最廣為人知。她對感知和視覺心理的研究十分有興趣。她大規模的實驗性作品往往受景觀、自然現象及不同的歷史和文化啟發。她獲獎無數,於2005年她獲頒著名的MacArthur基金會獎學金。其他獎項包括:古根漢獎學金、美國全國藝術基金會藝術家獎、美國學院羅馬附屬學會獎學金及路易斯·康福特·蒂芙尼雙年展大獎等。在2011至2014年間,費爾南德斯受美國總統奧巴馬委任為美國聯邦美術委員會成員,向總統、國會和政府機構就國家設計和美學等議題提出建議。她亦是非利營國際藝術家駐留項目Artpace的董事會成員。藝術家目前在紐約布魯克林定居及從事藝術創作。
費爾南德斯在她2017年於紐約立木畫廊舉辦的個展「Fire (America)」展示了一系列的作品,當中包括一個十六尺的釉面陶瓷面板,上面描繪了夜間的火災。她又以火和鐳射在紙上做出美國的景觀,也在畫廊的墻上裝置了一列燒焦的塊狀木炭。為了反映美國的環境及社會歷史,費爾南德斯參考了美洲原住民用以制造農地的「slash-and-burn」技巧,重覆使用火及燒焦的木頭為這些作品的主題和媒介。
費爾南德斯曾在多個美術館及博物館舉辦個人展覽,包括美國紐約哈德遜奧拉納國家歷史遺址(2017年)、美國北亞當斯馬薩諸塞當代藝術博物(2014年)、美國北邁阿密當代美術館(2011年)、美國沃斯堡現代藝術博物館(2011年)、美國克利夫蘭當代藝術博物館(2011年)、美國南佛羅裏達大學USF Contemporary Art Museum(2009年)及西班牙馬拉加當代美術館(2005年)。她曾多次接受定點作品的委托,包括美國康涅狄格州新迦南格雷斯農場的「Double Glass River」(2015年)、美國紐約麥迪遜廣場的「Fata Morgana」(2015年)、美國科羅拉多州阿斯彭美術博物館的「Golden (Panorama)」(2014年)、美國華盛頓美國海岸防衛隊的「Nocturnal (Navigation)」(2013年)、 美國德州大學伯蘭頓美術館的「Stacked Waters」(2009年)、美國阿靈頓AT&T體育場的「Starfield」(2009年)、日本貝尼斯藝術之地直島的「Blind Blue Landscape」(2009年)及美國西雅圖奧林匹克雕塑公園的「Seattle Cloud Cover」(2006年)。費爾南德斯亦參與過多個群體展覽,包括美國邁阿密Little Haiti Cultural Center的「Visionary Aponte: Art and Black Freedom」(2017年)、美國威爾明頓卡梅隆美術館的「Beyond the Horizon: Contemporary Landscape」(2017年)、美國哥倫布Pizzuti現代美術館的「Cuban Forever Revisited」(2016年)、美國普林斯頓大學美術館的「A Material Legacy: The Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection of Contemporary Art」(2016年)、美國布朗克斯Lehman College Art Gallery的「Cuban America: An Empire State of Mind」(2014年)、美國華盛頓史密森尼美國藝術博物館的「Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art」(2013 - 2014年)及美國密歇根伊萊和伊迪特·布羅德美術館和丹佛現代藝術博物館的「Pattern: Follow The Rules」(2013年)。其作品可見於多個國際公營以及私人收藏,包括美國紐約水牛城公共美術館、美國邁阿密當代藝術學院、以色列特拉維夫依瑞茲以色列博物館、法國巴黎路威酩軒集團收藏、美國波士頓美術博物、美國紐約現代藝術博物館、美國費城當代美術學院、美國邁阿密佩雷斯藝術博物館、美國三藩市現代藝術館及美國明尼阿波利斯沃克藝術中心。