May 17 – June 10, 2019 | Fausto Fernandez: Progression Through Colors
Fausto Fernandez – Xolotl
Fausto Fernandez has been crossing literal and metaphorical boundaries his entire life. Fernandez grew up between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. He earned his art degree from University of Texas, El Paso, and his paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in both Mexico and throughout the U.S. In this new body of work, Fausto Fernandez applies found materials that help him express his stories in metaphors: particularly stories of relationships, his interest in graphic design, and the influence of art history that challenged him to explore alternative forms of expression. Using wallpaper and instructional materials such as architectural drawings and maps, with bold abstract expressionist strokes of paint and graffiti, his new work further examines narratives about power dynamics and personal direction. The instructional materials serve as metaphors to rituals that inform and direct societal values. These elements of order, juxtaposed with action and gesture, ground the works with swaths of solid color, predominately black, that suggest mystery and monumentality.
Please come see them in person, from May 17 through June 10, 2019 at Turner Carroll Gallery. Artwork in the exhibition may be seen here.
Opening Reception Friday, May 17, 2019, from 5 to 7 pm
[n.b. that this event takes place in Santa Fe]
Fausto Fernandez at the Tempe Center for the Arts
Fausto Fernandez is in an exhibition at the Gallery at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The show ReTrO REACTION runs from Jan 18 through May 11, 2019. According to the website “The word “retro” describes things like clothes, cars and music that reflect styles and design elements from the past. Artists are often asked, where do you get your ideas? While the creative spark is different for every individual, this exhibition explores the inspirations and art-making processes of ten Arizona-based artists. Through personal retrospection, these artists give us a glimpse into how each of them absorbs, filters and reacts to ideas from the past to make relevant work in today’s rapidly changing world.” Artists include Heidi Abrahamson, Bob Allen, Malena Barnhart, Kristin Bauer, Fausto Fernandez, Angela Johnson, Jacob Meders, Rembrandt Quiballo, Kazuma Sambe and Henry Schoebel.
6 February 2019
February 2 – 24, 2018 | Fausto Fernandez: Crossing Boundaries
Fausto Fernandez – Flock of Black Sheep
Fausto Fernandez – Phone Screen Text Messages of a Mexican Girl in Miami
Fausto Fernandez has been crossing literal and metaphorical boundaries his entire life. Fernandez grew up between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. He earned his art degrees from University of Texas, El Paso, and his paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in both Mexico and throughout the U.S. Currently, a massive painting of Fausto Fernandez’s is included in a major exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art, alongside such well-known American contemporary artists as Nick Cave, Catherine Opie, Jim Dine, Robert Longo, and Andy Warhol. His works were also featured in a traveling exhibition titled Beauty Reigns: The Baroque in Contemporary Art, organized by the McNay Art Museum.
Throughout his career, Fernandez’s paintings attempt to find structure in chaos. He incorporates elements such as maps, blueprints, airplane plans, emojis, language, and geometric shapes in attempts to “find his way” in both painting and in life. These organizational/directional tools Fernandez places in his paintings meander through layers of abstract painting, splatters, collaged fabric, diamond dust glitter, and crayon scrawls.
Just as life isn’t clean and simple, neither are Fernandez’s paintings. Fernandez explores his identity as a Mexican, an American, and a Mexican-American/American-Mexican in his paintings. He places images of robust flowers from American wallpaper (a reference to the floral vitality of Mexico) atop urban American skyscrapers. Sometimes he will incorporate images of colonial-era white-wigged Americans into a work with hallucinogenic neon color, reminiscent of an Oaxacan market.
This exhibition is inspired by Dr. Lowery Sims’ exhibition curated for the contemporary museum 516 Arts, titled The US-Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility. In a time when national identity is in the forefront of discourse, it is compelling to explore paintings by artists like Fausto Fernandez, who are literally from–and part of–two worlds. Fernandez is part of Mexico as well as the United States. His painting crosses the boundaries of media and meaning. Yet, his paintings are gloriously beautiful, and regardless of whether we identify Fernandez as a Mexican, American, Mexican/American, or American/Mexican, his paintings touch our souls in a way only art can do, and they enhance our civilization.
Please come see them in person, from February 2-24 at Turner Carroll Gallery. A link to the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican is here.
Opening Reception Friday, February 2, 2018, from 5 to 7 pm
[n.b. that this event takes place in Santa Fe]
FaustoFernandezCrossingBoundariesPressRelease
October 21, 2017 – February 18, 2018 | Fausto Fernandez in the Tucson Museum of Art
Fausto Fernández
Fausto Fernandez in the Tucson Museum of Art
This October opens the exhibition Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor, where you’ll find Fausto Fernandez in the Tucson Museum of Art. Fausto’s monumental painting from Turner Carroll Gallery– “Waves of Impact as a Method of Truth-Telling”-– will be featured in the exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art. The museum says the exhibition “examines clothing in art as symbols of power and identity. Artists use garments to address interpersonal issues and conditions as well as to relay stories and raise issues about gender, age, history, society, race, and culture.” Fausto’s inclusion in the Tucson Museum of Art’s exhibition is significant, because it places his painting alongside such contemporary art luminaries as Christian Boltanski, Robert Longo, Nick Cave, Jim Dine, Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, and Catherine Opie. Though Fernandez is still quite a young artist, his work have been drawing attention from several museums, art centers, and public arts institutions lately. Recently, Fernandez won the public art commission for a major installation of his work at the Hollywood/Burbank Airport. Fausto’s works have also been included in a traveling exhibition titled “Beauty Reigns,” at the McNay Art Museum and the Akron Art Museum. Fernandez was also awarded several arts residencies in the last year, including a residence in Miami, Florida–the Eileen Kaminsky Family Foundation.
The Tucson Museum of Art describes the exhibition as follows: “Dress Matters: Clothing as Metaphor examines clothing in art as symbols of power and identity. At once functional and aesthetic, garments are worn to protect the body from the elements, enhance the beauty of the wearer, establish rank in society, and signal to others our differences or similarities. Garments also point to interpersonal issues and conditions as well as larger societal and cultural concerns. Works in this exhibition reveal how artists use concepts and images of clothing to relay compelling messages about gender, age, ethnicity, history, profession and the world around us in general.”
May 18 – August 6, 2017 | Fausto Fernandez at the McNay Art Museum
May 18 – August 6, 2017 | Fausto Fernandez at the McNay Art Museum
McNay Art Museum
To See is to Have: Navigating Today’s Art Ecosystem: May 18 – August 6, 2017
The inspiration behind To See Is to Have: Navigating Today’s Art Ecosystem is to make private art public, and to share with every member of our community selections from the diverse collections of members of the McNay Contemporary Collectors Forum (MCCF). The artworks on view open doors to new worlds of discovery, and have been selected from the personal collections of the members of MCCF, who dedicate themselves to learning about, engaging with, and collecting contemporary art.
Accompanied by an illustrated gallery guide that attempts to break down the barriers to collecting art, To See Is to Have: Navigating Today’s Art Ecosystem encourages and emboldens visitors to embark on their own journeys of discovery of contemporary art.
L.A. Times: Artist’s style wins over Airport Authority
New Mexico artist Fausto Fernandez
After several months of searching, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority has chosen an artist to design large-scale artwork to be mounted on the transportation center at Hollywood Burbank Airport.
Commissioners unanimously voted during a meeting on Monday to award New Mexico artist Fausto Fernandez an $85,000 contract to come up with six different designs for each of the panels outside of the building along Hollywood Way.
The airport authority is required to put up art pieces on the center to fulfill Burbank’s Art in Public Places obligation after the building was constructed, said Nerissa Sugars, who is in charge of the authority’s marketing and business development.
June 21 – July 10, 2016 | Fausto Fernandez, Jamie Brunson and Robert Townsend: ROY G BIV
ROY G BIV
Before there was a written language, color was the universal language of mankind. Prehistoric humans used color to describe every aspect of their lives. Red= blood; orange= fire; yellow=sun; green=natural vegetation/food source; blue=air; indigo=water; violet=the color of sunset/sunrise transition. Historians believe prehistoric people would travel up to 25 miles to mine iron, for pigments to make the red and ochre paints for their cave paintings.
Ancient Egyptians valued color symbolism in their tombs and temples so deeply that their desire for additional color options fueled their efforts in mining and trade. We know for certain that the Greek and Roman sculptures we think of as monochromatic white, were originally polychromatic! They had red lips, colored eyes, brilliantly hued garments–all painted with painstakingly created paints from pure pigment. The more rare the pigment, the more exalted the subject.
Opening Reception Friday, June 24, 2016 from 5 to 7pm
[n.b. that this event takes place in Santa Fe]
April 14 – 17, 2016 | Turner Carroll at the Dallas Art Fair
Dallas Art Fair
Located at the Fashion Industry Gallery, adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the revitalized downtown arts district. Featuring new works by gallery artists Fausto Fernandez, Hung Liu, Squeak Carnwath, Drew Tal, Jamie Brunson, Rusty Scruby, Edward Lentsch, Wanxin Zhang, Suzanne Sbarge, Karen Yank, Scott Greene, Holly Roberts, and more! Fair hours are Friday and Saturday, April 15 and 16 respectively, from 11am to 7pm, and Sunday, April 17 from 12pm to 6pm, with an opening preview gala Thursday, April 14.
A link to the Dallas Art Fair is here.
ZONE ZERO LABS – CROWD SERIES: Fausto Fernandez
Fausto Fernández – Lingering Effects on the Westside
Fausto Fernández Nació en El Paso, Texas. Artista de collage y técnicas mixtas cuyas obras incluyen una variedad de pinturas abstractas, arte público y proyectos de vinculación con la comunidad. Lic. en Pintura y en Diseño Gráfico, egresado de la Universidad de Texas. Durante los últimos 15 años ha producido y desarrollado su disciplina artística en Phoenix, Arizona y Los Ángeles. Fue aceptado en el programa Border Art Residency 2014-15.
Fausto Fernandez in Fusion Magazine, Issue #80; Squeak Carnwath at the Napa Valley Museum
Fausto Fernandez in Fusion Magazine
Issue 80 of Fusion Magazine has a nice story on our own Fausto Fernandez. Fresh from his Phoenix Airport commission and his New Mexico Residency, Fausto is working toward his museum show in El Paso later this year. Fusion is an arts and culture magazine covering the scene in Texas and Northern Mexico. A link to the Issuu version of the magazine is here.
Meanwhile in Yountville, California, the Napa Valley Museum has mounted an exhibition called Napa Valley Collects which highlights significant artworks from the outstanding collections throughout the Napa Valley.
Included in the show are works by Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Buck, Deborah Oropallo, Kara Walker and Morris Graves. The exhibition runs through May 31, 2015. A link to the Issuu catalog is here.