Teresita Fernández

Teresita Fernández (born 1968) is a New York-based

visual artist best known for her public sculptures and Teresita Fernández
unconventional use of materials. Her work is Born 1968 (age 55–56)
characterized by a reconsideration of landscape and Miami, Florida, United States
issues of visibility. Fernández’s practice generates Nationality American
psychological topographies that prompt the subjective Education Southwest Miami High School
reshaping of spatial and historical awareness.[1] Her
Alma mater Florida International University
experiential, large-scale works are often inspired by
natural landscapes, investigating the historical, Virginia Commonwealth
geological, and anthropological realms in flux.[2] Her University
sculptures present optical illusions and evoke natural Awards MacArthur Genius Grant,
phenomena, land formations, and water.[3] Guggenheim, National
Endowment for the Arts
Throughout her career, Fernández has experimented
with a diverse array of materials. Ranging from
ceramics, glass, and charcoal to gold and graphite, the varied
mediums prompt the viewers to take a closer look at each work to
contemplate the materialities.[4] To Fernández, materials—at times
found subterraneously and are physical remnants of a place—are a
testament to the historical past and tangible facts.[5] Fernández
refers to her works as “stacked landscapes,” alluding to the
process of layering meanings and materials to her sculptural
plane.[6] In this process, Fernández’s landscape sculptures delve
Portrait of Teresita Fernández
into complex themes of self-perception, colonialism, and historical
violence associated with the environment and body.[7]

She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2003), and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation "Genius Grant" (2005). In 2011, she served as a presidential appointee to Barack Obama's
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, distinguishing her as the first Latina to serve in that role.[8]

Early life and education

Fernández was born in Miami, Florida to Cuban parents in exile. Her family left Cuba in July 1959, six
months after the Cuban Revolution. As a child, she spent much of her time creating in the atelier of her
great aunts and grandmother, all of whom had been trained as highly skilled couture seamstresses in
Havana, Cuba.[9]
In 1986, Fernández graduated from Southwest Miami High School. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts
from Florida International University in 1990, and a Masters of Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth
University in 1992.[10]

Career
In 2009 the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin commissioned the large
permanent work titled Stacked Waters that occupies the museum's Rapoport Atrium. Stacked Waters (http
s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2veik-avFNw) consists of 3,100 square feet of custom-cast acrylic that
covers the walls in a striped pattern. The work's title alludes to artist Donald Judd's "stacked" sculptures
—a series of identical boxes installed vertically along wall surfaces—as well as to his sculptural
explorations of box interiors. Fernández noticed how The Blanton's atrium functions like a box, and given
its architectural nods to the arches of Roman baths and cisterns, she sought to fill its spatial volume with
an illusion of water.[11]

Also in 2009, Fernández debuted the permanent, site-specific commission Blind Blue Landscape at the
Benesse Art Site (https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/art/benessehouse-museum.html), Naoshima.[12] The work
consists of a collection of glass cubes, illustrating a reflective landscape. This work is on view at the
Benesse House hotel complex.[13] The artist also debuted a similar commissioned work called Starfield (h
ttps://attstadium.com/artwork/starfield-2009/), made up of mirrored glass cubes on anodized aluminum
in the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.[14][15]

In 2013, Fernández was featured in a contemporary art installation at Cornell Fine Arts Museum's Alfond
Inn in Winter Park, FL. The work displayed was titled "Nocturnal (Cobalt Panorama)".[16][17]

In 2014, Fernández was the subject of a solo-exhibition with Mass MoCA, Teresita Fernández: As Above
So Below, in conjunction with the museum's fifteenth-year celebration.[18] In Mass MoCA's first floor
gallery spaces, she exhibited her three new landscape-informed, large-scale installations: Black Sun,
Sfumato (Epic), and Lunar (Theatre).[18]

On June 1, 2015, Fata Morgana (https://vimeo.com/146464381), her largest public art project to date and
the largest installation in the park's history, opened in New York's Madison Square Park.[19][20] The
Madison Square Park Conservancy presented the outdoor sculpture consisting of 500 running feet of
golden, mirror-polished discs that create canopies above the pathways around the park's central Oval
Lawn.[21] Fata Morgana reflects the artist’s immersive sensibilities where the act of living and moving
through spaces influence her practice.[22]

In 2017, Fernández, in collaboration with Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, created a site-specific
installation called OVERLOOK: Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana (https://www.ola
na.org/exhibitions/overlook-teresita-fernandez-confronts-frederic-church-at-olana/) at Olana State
Historic Site.[23][24] In this work, Fernández contests the traditional “American Landscape” painting
tradition, combining portraits of indigenous people, expansive horizon lines, and botanical imagery to
prioritize the individual within the landscape.[25]

Harvard University Committee on the Arts commissioned Autumn (... Nothing Personal) a public art
project by Fernández in 2018.[26] The circular installation was placed in Tercentenary Theatre Harvard
Yard, serving as a physical space for public dialogue and performance.[27]
In 2019, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Phoenix Art Museum
organized Teresita Fernández: Elemental, the artist's first mid-
career retrospective presenting artworks spanning the 1990s to the
present.[28] The exhibition featured sculptures, installations, and
several other mixed media works to comment on social,
geological, and political issues. The publication accompanying the
show was published by PAMM with Phoenix Art Museum.[8]

Also in 2019, Fernández was commissioned to create a permanent, Seattle Cloud Cover (public
commission, 2006)
site-specific glazed ceramic installation Viñales(Mayombe
Mississippi) for the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden
at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Viñales(Mayombe Mississippi) is a 60-foot-long ceramic
mural, placed on the exterior wall of the garden’s Pavilion.[29] The installation draws inspiration from her
previous Viñales series, which embodies Fernández’s interest in combining earthly materials with a
conceptual approach to place and image-making.[30]

In 2021, Fernández exhibited "Dark Earth" in the Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery at Georgetown
University.[31] The exhibit featured a panoramic wall made from charcoal and punctuated with reflective,
golden panels.[31]

From 2021 to 2023, Fernández participated in Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Teresita Fernández: Fire
(United States of the Americas), unveiling her site-specific Fire (United States of the Americas), which
inaugurated a new wing at the museum.[32] An abstract map made up of charcoal, this installation
featured all US states and territories, examining legacies of colonialism, indigenous genocide, and
slavery.[32]

Also in 2021, Fernández produced a site-specific, permanent sculpture Paradise Parados as part of the
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)/ Robert W. Wilson Public Art Initiative.[33] The permanent
sculpture was installed in the Robert W. Wilson Sculpture Terrace at BAM Strong, connected to its
historic Harvey Theater. Paradise Parados, consisting of 3,000 feet of perforated stainless steel, received
the New York City Public Design Commission award for Excellence in Design.[34] The installation
echoes the surrounding urban life, presenting a dynamic rethinking of public space.

Fernández has also participated in multiple group shows including Contemporary Optics at the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) in 2021 and Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean
Diaspora, 1990s -Today at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) in 2022.

In the Summer of 2024, SITE Santa Fe presented the exhibition Teresita Fernández / Robert Smithson,
which placed Fernández’s oeuvre in dialogue with acclaimed Minimalist Robert Smithson’s. Together, the
works explore the interstices between place, site, sight, and time through material intelligence, geological
agency, and cartographic fiction. The exhibition included over 30 works by Fernández and marked the
first time that Smithson’s work has been displayed in conversation with a contemporary living artist.[35]

Fernández is one of the 18 contemporary artists awarded a site-specific commission for the John F.
Kennedy International Airport’s new Terminal 6, which is scheduled to open in 2026.[36]

Advocacy for the arts

Fernández is well known for advocating for Latino artists and in 2016 she partnered with the Ford
Foundation to organize the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium, a landmark gathering of Latino artists
with museum directors, curators, scholars, educators, demographers, and funders across the country.[37]
Partnering with the Ford Foundation in 2016, Fernández helped found and create the U.S. Latinx Arts
Futures Symposium.[38] The symposium was organized to create a dialogue on how to more broadly
represent Latino art across the full spectrum of creative disciplines.[39] In her opening address for the
U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium, Fernández indicated that the event was meant to create an
intersection between "the powerful and the voiceless."[40]

One direct result of the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium was the Whitney Museum of American Art
hire of the museum's first curator specializing in Latino art.[41]

Awards
1994: CINTAS Fellowship[42]
1995: Metro-Dade Cultural Consortium Grant (Miami, FL)
1999: Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award
2003: Guggenheim Fellowship (New York, NY)
2005: MacArthur Fellows Program[43]
2013: Aspen Art Museum Aspen Award for Art (Aspen, CO)
2016: Art in General Visionary Artist Honoree (New York, NY)[44]
2017: National Academician, National Academy Museum & School (New York, NY)[45]
2017: Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers (New York,
NY)[46]
2017: The Drawing Center 40th Anniversary Honoree (New York, NY)[47]
2021: Meridian Cultural Diplomacy Award, Meridian International Center (Washington,
D.C.)[48]
2021: Award For Excellence in Design, New York City Public Commission (New York,
NY)[49]
2022: Creative Capital Award (New York, NY)[50]

References
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nytimes.com/2019/10/23/arts/design/teresita-fernandez-latinx-artists.html). The New York
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3. Roffino, Sara (15 July 2014). "Teresita Fernández with Sara Roffino" (http://brooklynrail.org/
2014/07/art/teresita-fernndez-with-sara-roffino). The Brooklyn Rail.
4. "Teresita Fernández on the Violent Nature of the American Landscape" (https://timesensitiv
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 5. "BOMB Magazine | Material Intelligence: Teresita Fernández Interviewed" (https://bombmag
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17. DiazCasas, Rafael (27 August 2013). "Close-Up: Nocturnal (Navigation) by Teresita
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tps://www.nbcnews.com/video/artist-teresita-fernandez-talks-about-her-acclaimed-outdoor-s
culpture-fata-morgana-514231875851). NBC News. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
20. Kino, Carol. "Artist Teresita Fernández Transforms New York's Madison Square Park" (http
s://www.wsj.com/articles/artist-teresita-fernandez-transforms-new-yorks-madison-square-pa
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21. Kino, Carol (31 March 2015). "Artist Teresita Fernández Transforms New York's Madison
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madison-square-park-1427814775). The Wall Street Journal.
22. Stunda, Hilary (2013-11-01). "New Ways of Seeing: A Conversation with Teresita
Fernández" (https://sculpturemagazine.art/new-ways-of-seeing-a-conversation-with-teresita-
fernandez/). Sculpture. Retrieved 2024-06-10.
23. "OVERLOOK: Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana A collaboration with
the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros" (http://www.olana.org/overlook/). Olana NY State
Historic Site. 14 May 2017.
24. Hasbrook, Melanie; Barrera Pieck, Mariana (22 February 2017). " "OVERLOOK" Exhibition
at Olana Features a Groundbreaking Site-Specific Installation by Artist Teresita Fernández"
(http://www.olana.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/OVERLOOK-Exhibition-at-Olana-FINAL.
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25. OVERLOOK – Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana (https://www.olana.or
g/exhibitions/overlook-teresita-fernandez-confronts-frederic-church-at-olana/)
26. "Teresita Fernández: Autumn (…Nothing Personal)" (http://autumnnothingpersonal.arts.harv
ard.edu/). autumnnothingpersonal.arts.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
27. "Teresita Fernández: Autumn (…Nothing Personal)" (http://autumnnothingpersonal.arts.harv
ard.edu/). autumnnothingpersonal.arts.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
28. Phoenix Art Museum (2020-04-03). Teresita Fernández: Elemental Exhibition Video (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gHdZu7xpfU). Retrieved 2024-06-11 – via YouTube.
29. "See the New Orleans Museum of Art's Expanded Sculpture Garden" (https://galeriemagazi
ne.com/noma-sculpture-garden/). Galerie. 2019-06-11. Retrieved 2024-06-14.
30. "In Besthoff Sculpture Garden, Teresita Fernández's mosaic mural evokes "a landscape
within a landscape" " (https://noma.org/in-besthoff-sculpture-garden-teresita-fernandezs-mo
saic-mural-evokes-a-landscape-within-a-landscape/). New Orleans Museum of Art. 2020-01-
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31. "New Page — Georgetown University Art Galleries" (https://www.delacruzgallery.org/new-pa
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33. "Paradise Parados" (http://www.bam.org/paradise-parados). BAM.org. Retrieved
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34. Adrian-Diaz, Jenna (2022-05-16). "Teresita Fernández Creates Glimmering "Walled Garden"
Made of Stainless Steel Above Brooklyn" (https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/art-teresita-f
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ned-jfk-airport.html?smid=url-share). The New York Times.
37. "The future of the arts is Latinx: Q&A with artist Teresita Fernandez" (https://www.fordfounda
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Further reading
Allen S. Weiss (2001). Teresita Fernández (exhibition catalogue). Santa Fe, NM: SITE
Santa Fe. ISBN 9780970077424
Marcella Beccaria (2001). Teresita Fernández (exhibition catalogue, in Italian and English).
Rivoli, Italy: Castello di Rivoli. OCLC 52180953 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52180953)
Gregory Volk, David Norr, Amy Hauft, Elizabeth King (2008). Teresita Fernández (exhibition
catalogue). Richmond, VA: Reynolds Gallery. OCLC 231141945 (https://www.worldcat.org/o
clc/231141945).
David Louis Norr (editor) (2009). Teresita Fernández: Blind Landscape (exhibition
catalogue). Zurich: JRP Ringier. ISBN 9783037640494.
Teresita Fernández, Eliot Weinberger, Denise Markonish (2014). Teresita Fernández: As
Above So Below (exhibition catalogue). Mass Moca: North Adams, MA.
ISBN 9780982991459
Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Beverly Adams (2015). Fata Morgana (exhibition catalogue). New
York, NY: Madison Square Park Conservancy. OCLC 945215456 (https://www.worldcat.org/
oclc/945215456).
Denise Markonish (editor) (2017). Teresita Fernández: Wayfinding (exhibition catalogue).
New York, NY: DelMonico Books/Prestel. ISBN 9783791356822.
Fernández, Teresita; Ortiz, María Elena; Cruz, Amada; D'Souza, Aruna; Rodney, Seph;
Spellberg, Matthew; Sirmans, Franklin (2019). Teresita Fernández : elemental. National
 Geographic Books. ISBN 978-3-7913-5884-0. OCLC 1124923916 (https://search.worldcat.o
rg/oclc/1124923916).
Atkins, Katherine, and Kelly Kivland, eds (2020). On Robert Smithson. New York: Dia Art
Foundation. Davis, Jeremiah Matthew, Rand Elliott, Jennifer Scanlan, et al. Bright Golden
Haze. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Contemporary. ISBN 0944521916
Siegel, Nancy, Kate Menconeri, Amanda Malmstrom, eds (2023). Women Reframe
American Landscape. Catskill: Thomas Cole National Historic Site. Munich: Hirmer.
ISBN 3777440396

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