Teresita Fernández: Dark Earth
MacArthur Foundation genius Teresita Fernández (American b. 1968, lives Brooklyn) is known for her luminous works that poetically evoke the landscape while also referencing the sociopolitical and historical colonial violence embedded in our ideas of place. Dark Earth features an immersive, panoramic charcoal wall drawing that encompasses golden, reflective panels that delve into the buried, layered, and often omitted social history that continues to shape our present-day perceptions of the people and places around us. The artist’s deliberate use of materials reveals the fluctuation of power that surrounds natural resources.
This exhibition is generously supported by Maria & Alberto de la Cruz. Curated by Al Miner.
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Teresita FernándezDark Earth (Cosmos) (detail), 2019Solid charcoal and mixed media on chromed panel3 panels, each: 80 x 64 x 2 in. -
Teresita FernándezDark Earth (Oumuamua), 2019Solid charcoal and mixed media on chromed panel80 x 64 x 2 in.
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Teresita FernándezDark Earth (Subterranean) (detail), 2019Solid charcoal and mixed media on chromed panel80 x 64 x 2 in.
Teresita Fernández (b. 1968, Miami; lives in New York) is a conceptual artist best known for her immersive, sensuous sculptures and monumental public art. Her work is characterized by an interest in perception and the psychology of looking, and her immersive, large-scale works are often inspired by a rethinking of landscape and place, as well as by diverse historical and cultural references. Often referencing the natural world, Fernández’s conceptual practice emphasizes the connection between place and material; using gold, graphite, iron-ore and other minerals that have loaded historical ties to colonization and the violence embedded in landscape. Her work is characterized by a quiet unraveling of place, power, visibility, and erasure that prompts an intimate experience for individual viewers.
Fernández received a BFA from Florida International University, Miami, FL in 1990 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA in 1992. She is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2005) and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2003), the Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award (1999), an American Academy of Rome Fellowship (AFAAR) (1999), and a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist’s Grant in Visual Arts (1994). In 2011, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. She is the first Latina to serve on the 100-year-old federal panel, which advises the president and Congress on national matters of design and aesthetics. In 2021, Fernández will install a monumental, outdoor sculpture titled Paradise Parados on the rooftop of the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn, NY.
