Date and Time
Sat, May 7, 2022
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM EDT
Location
Open Studio
208 East 51st Street
New York, NY 10022
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About the Event
For this open studio, Adrián Fernández has chosen to display photographs from the Pending Memories series alongside a very recent body of sculptures titled Incomplete Monument that are shown for the first time. The resulting installation features black and white photographs of urban and rural landscapes tthat are in close dialogue with sculptural counterparts fabricated in Corten steel. The center of the photographic images are occupied by metallic structures of different scales that seem to have been abandoned. Whereas their purpose is unknown, the camera documents the location of these constructions as an archaeological site, leading the viewer to wonder about the possible motives that led to their existence. The feeling of abandonment in these scenes is reinforced by the evidence of deterioration, by the way nature has penetrated them and the notable absence of the human element. The subject does not exist; all that remains is the evidence of passage within the very structure that it seems to have forgotten.
About the Artist
Adrián Fernández studied visual arts at the San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy (2004) and at the Superior Institute of Arts (2010) in Havana, Cuba. He works as an independent artist and as a professor of Documentary Photography for New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Office of Special Programs Abroad. Early in his career he began to experiment with photographic media, in which he has developed much of his art, expanding his practice in recent years to three-dimensional installation and sculpture works. The metal structures found in his sculptures result from the combination of simple geometric figures that are interconnected giving shape to more complex volumes, which sometimes appear to be unfinished or abandoned constructions in the process of creation. His photography has developed from black-and-white with a documentary perspective to studio photography and the use of digital images with computer generated content. His work is inspired by the symbolic connection established between objects, belongings, architectural forms, images or fragments of the material world that inhabit and at the same time modulate people's daily lives. He explores their impact on the shaping of personal memory, collective history and the creation of new cultural paradigms in contemporary society
Adrián Fernández has exhibited in group and solo shows in Cuba, United States, Mexico, Panama, France, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland. His work can be found in the collections of The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 21C Museum Hotels, Perez Art Museum Miami, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana.
*Proof of vaccination and face covering required indoors during the event
This program benefits from the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund.