The New York Observer
September 19, 2011
Artist Teresita Fernández Picked for President Commission
By Andrew Russeth
Chelsea’s Lehmann Maupin gallery now has the unique distiction of showing an artist that is a presidential appointee, after President Barack Obama announced that he has tapped Teresita Fernández to become a member of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.
The seven-member advisory group, which celebrated its centennial anniversary last year, provides advice to the President and Congress on design and aesthetic issues, and weighs in on issues like coinage and the site of future national monuments. Each member’s term is seven years.
A 2005 MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner, Ms. Fernández has work in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., the Miami Art Museum and the Seattle Art Museum.
Past members of the commission include the artist Daniel Chester French and architect Daniel Burnham.