Background
Teresita Fernández was born on May 12, 1968, in Miami, Florida, United States.
8855 SW 50th Terrace, Miami, FL 33165, United States
In 1986, Teresita finished Southwest Miami High School.
11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199, United States
In 1986, Teresita entered Florida International University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990.
907 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23284, United States
In 1990, Fernández enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she attained a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1992.
8855 SW 50th Terrace, Miami, FL 33165, United States
In 1986, Teresita finished Southwest Miami High School.
11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199, United States
In 1986, Teresita entered Florida International University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990.
907 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23284, United States
In 1990, Fernández enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she attained a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1992.
Teresita Fernández was born on May 12, 1968, in Miami, Florida, United States.
When Teresita was a child, she spent much of her time in the atelier of her great aunts and grandmother - highly skilled couture seamstresses. In 1986, Teresita finished Southwest Miami High School and entered Florida International University, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990. Then, the same year, in 1990, she enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she attained a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1992.
In 1996, Teresita held her first solo exhibition at Deitch Projects in New York City. The following year, in 1997, her work was included in an exhibition, held at New Museum, also in New York City. The same year, in 1997, Teresita's works were presented in a group show "The Crystal Stopper" at Lehmann Maupin gallery.
Then, in 1999, the artist organized her first solo museum show, which was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. The same year, in 1999, Fernández was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Later, she also had solo exhibitions at SITE Santa Fe, Castle of Rivoli and The Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, in Málaga, Spain.
In the late-1990's-early 2000's, Fernández served as an artist-in-residence. In 1997, she was an artist-in-residence at Arcus Project in Moriya, Ibaraki, Japan, as well as at Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation in New York City. In 1998, she held a post of artist-in-residence in Artpace, San Antonio. In 2005, Fernández held the same position at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. While there, Teresita produced a piece, called "Fire", that was constructed, using thousands of silk threads from Franco Scalamandré. The dyed silk threads were held taut between two rings and suspended from the ceiling, creating a unique optical illusion of transparency and dense color, that appeared to vibrate, when experienced by the moving viewer.
In 2006, Teresita was the youngest artist, who created the work for the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park, titled "Seattle Cloud Cover". This work allows visitors to walk under a block-long covered skyway, while viewing the city's skyline, appearing through tiny holes in color-saturated glass.
Throughout her career, Fernández created many sculptures out of raw, mined graphite. Her sculpture, "Borrowdale (Drawn Waters)", created in 2009, is a reference to Cumbria, England, the location, where graphite was first discovered and mined in the 1500's. Also, in 2009, Teresita created her large permanent work, "Stacked Waters", which is located in the Blanton Museum of Art, in Austin. The same year, in 2009, the artist created a work, called "Starfield", made up of mirrored glass cubes on anodized aluminum.
In 2010, Teresita acted as an artist-in-residence at STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery in Singapore, and in 2011, held the same post at John Hardy Residency Program, in Bali, Indonesia. In 2011, appointed by President Obama, she was the first Latina to serve on the United States Commission of Fine Arts, a 100-year-old federal panel, that advises the president and Congress on national matters of design and aesthetics. She held that position till 2014.
Later, in 2013, Teresita held a show, titled "Night Writing", at Lehmann Maupin gallery in New York City. The show consisted of a single, large-scale installation, built on site in the soaring double-height space of the gallery. This work evokes the dramatic and universal experience of looking at the night sky. Made up of thousands of translucent, colored layers of polycarbonate, the hovering form becomes like sculptural painting, filtering the natural light in the space to create a color field, reminiscent of the aurora borealis.
From May 24, 2014 till April 6, 2015, Teresita held her largest solo exhibition to date, entitled "As Above So Below", at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) in North Adams, Massachusetts. The exhibition combined graphite and gold to create a series of immersive, interconnected installations, whose scale shifted from intimate to vast, from miniature to panoramic. On June 1, 2015, "Fata Morgana", her largest public art project to date, opened in New York's Madison Square Park.
In 2016, collaborating with the Ford Foundation, Fernández co-founded the United States Latinx Arts Futures Symposium, that brought together artists, museum directors, curators, scholars, educators, demographers and funders from across the country for a series of candid discussions on how to more broadly represent Latino art across the full spectrum of creative disciplines.
In 2017, Fernández was elected to be a National Academician at the National Academy Museum & School in New York City. The same year, working with Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the artist created a site-specific installation "OVERLOOK: Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana" at Olana State Historic Site.
In 2018, Teresita was commissioned by Harvard University Committee on the Arts to create "Autumn (... Nothing Personal)", a public art project.
In addition, besides all solo exhibitions, mentioned above, Teresita had many other solo exhibitions at different museums, universities and galleries, including Almine Rech Gallery in Paris, France (2010), Gallery 313 in Seoul, Korea, (2011), Kyoto University of Art and Design in Kyoto, Japan, (2014), Almine Rech Gallery in London, United Kingdom (2014), among many others.
Fernández lives and works in Brooklyn, New York City.
Teresita Fernández is a noted artist and sculptor, who gained prominence for her public sculptures and unconventional use of different materials. Her work is characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking, and her large-scale works are often inspired by landscape and natural phenomena, as well as diverse historical and cultural references.
In 2011, former United States President Obama appointed Fernández to serve on the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA), a federal panel, that advises the President, Congress, and governmental agencies on national matters of design and aesthetics. She is the first Latina to serve on the Commission, and the second person of Latino heritage to serve on the CFA in its over 100-year history.
Teresita received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Individual Artist's Grant from the National Education Association and National Endowment for the Arts Artist's Grant in 1994, CAVA Fellowship and Metro-Dade Cultural Consortium Grant in 1995, Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award in 1999, Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant in 2005, Aspen Award for Art in 2013, among others.
The artist's work is included in significant private collections, as well as the permanent collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Miami Art Museum; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Sammlung Goetz, Munich; and the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
Teresita's work is often inspired by natural wonders, such as meteor showers, the aurora borealis, cloud formations, fire and the night sky. The artist explores the relationship between the power of nature and the development of technology. She captures the essence of formless elements, such as water and air, using undeniably physical materials. Teresita places particular importance on 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.
It's also worth mentioning, that Fernández cites Japanese culture and sensibility as the greatest inspiration to her work as an artist.
Quotations:
"I think a huge part of me must be from Japan and it plays into my work, particularly with light and dark."
"Being an artist is not just about what happens when you are in the studio. The way you live, the people you choose to love and the way you love them, the way you vote, the words, that come out of your mouth… will also become the raw material for the art you make."
"An artist’s work is almost entirely inquiry-based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific, that they can only be your own."
"And lastly, when other things in life get tough, when you're going through family troubles, when you're heartbroken, when you're frustrated with money problems, focus on your work. It has saved me through every single difficult thing I have ever had to do, like a scaffolding, that goes far beyond any traditional notions of a career."
"What's interesting about art in public spaces is that the public really sort of takes over and uses it in ways, that you didn't anticipate."
Teresita has two children.
