Teresita Fernández facts for kids

Portrait of Teresita Fernández

Teresita Fernández (born in 1968) is a talented artist who lives in New York. She is famous for her large outdoor sculptures and for using unusual materials in her art. Her work often makes people think about nature and how we see the world around us.

Teresita's art explores how places and history connect. Her big sculptures are often inspired by natural landscapes like mountains or water. She uses materials like glass, charcoal, and even gold to create amazing pieces that sometimes look like optical illusions. These materials help tell stories about the past and the places they come from. Teresita calls her artworks "stacked landscapes" because she layers different meanings and materials together. Through her art, she explores ideas about who we are, history, and how people connect with nature.

Teresita has received many important awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a "Genius Grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2005. In 2011, she was chosen by President Barack Obama to be part of the United States Commission of Fine Arts. This made her the first Latina woman to hold that position.

About Teresita Fernández

Early Life and Education

Teresita Fernández was born in Miami, Florida. Her parents were from Cuba and had moved to the United States in 1959, after the Cuban Revolution. As a child, Teresita spent a lot of time creating things with her great aunts and grandmother. They were all skilled seamstresses from Havana, Cuba.

Teresita finished high school at Southwest Miami High School in 1986. She then went on to study art, earning her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida International University in 1990. She later received her Masters of Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992.

Her Artistic Journey

Teresita Fernández is known for creating large, immersive artworks that invite people to experience them. She often uses materials in surprising ways to make her art.

• In 2009, she created a huge permanent artwork called Stacked Waters for the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. This piece uses 3,100 square feet of special acrylic material to make the walls look like they are covered in striped water.
• That same year, she also created Blind Blue Landscape in Naoshima, Japan. This artwork uses many glass cubes to create a reflective landscape. She also made a similar piece called Starfield for the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, using mirrored glass cubes.
• In 2015, her largest public art project, Fata Morgana, opened in Madison Square Park in New York. This outdoor sculpture is 500 feet long and features golden, mirror-polished discs that form canopies over the park's pathways. It reflects the park and the people moving through it.

Seattle Cloud Cover (public commission, 2006)

• In 2017, Teresita created an installation called OVERLOOK at the Olana State Historic Site. In this work, she explored traditional "American Landscape" paintings by adding images of native people and plants.
• Harvard University asked Teresita to create a public art project in 2018 called Autumn (... Nothing Personal). This circular artwork in Harvard Yard became a place for public discussions and performances.
• In 2019, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Phoenix Art Museum held Teresita Fernández: Elemental. This was a big exhibition showing her artworks from the 1990s until then. It included sculptures and other mixed media pieces that talked about social, geological, and political topics.
• Also in 2019, she created a permanent ceramic mural called Viñales(Mayombe Mississippi) for the New Orleans Museum of Art. This 60-foot-long mural is on the outside wall of the garden's Pavilion.
• In 2021, Teresita showed "Dark Earth" at Georgetown University. This exhibit featured a large wall made from charcoal with shiny gold panels.
• From 2021 to 2023, the Philadelphia Museum of Art featured her site-specific work, Fire (United States of the Americas). This abstract map, made of charcoal, showed all US states and territories. It explored the history of colonialism and slavery.
• Also in 2021, she created a permanent sculpture called Paradise Parados for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). This sculpture, made of 3,000 feet of stainless steel, won an award for its design.
• In the summer of 2024, SITE Santa Fe presented Teresita Fernández / Robert Smithson. This exhibition showed Teresita's art alongside works by the famous artist Robert Smithson. It was the first time Smithson's work was shown with a living artist's work.
• Teresita is one of 18 artists chosen to create special artworks for the new Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. This terminal is set to open in 2026.

Supporting Other Artists

Teresita Fernández is also known for helping other Latino artists. In 2016, she worked with the Ford Foundation to organize the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium. This was an important meeting of Latino artists, museum leaders, and others. The goal was to talk about how to show more Latino art in different creative fields. Teresita said the event was meant to connect "the powerful and the voiceless."

One important result of this symposium was that the Whitney Museum of American Art hired its first curator who specializes in Latino art.

Awards and Recognition

Teresita Fernández has received many awards for her amazing work:

• 1994: CINTAS Fellowship
• 1995: Metro-Dade Cultural Consortium Grant
• 1999: Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award
• 2003: Guggenheim Fellowship
• 2005: MacArthur Fellows Program ("Genius Grant")
• 2013: Aspen Art Museum Aspen Award for Art
• 2016: Art in General Visionary Artist Honoree
• 2017: National Academician, National Academy Museum & School
• 2017: Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers
• 2017: The Drawing Center 40th Anniversary Honoree
• 2021: Meridian Cultural Diplomacy Award, Meridian International Center
• 2021: Award For Excellence in Design, New York City Public Commission
• 2022: Creative Capital Award