Teresita Fernández facts for kids

Portrait of Teresita Fernández

Teresita Fernández (born in 1968) is an amazing artist who lives in New York. She is famous for her large outdoor sculptures and for using unusual materials. Her art often makes you think about nature and what we see around us.

Fernández creates art that helps us look at places and history in new ways. Her big artworks are often inspired by natural landscapes. She explores how history, geology (the study of rocks and earth), and people change over time. Her sculptures often create cool optical illusions. They can make you think of natural things like landforms and water.

Throughout her career, Fernández has used many different materials. These include ceramics, glass, charcoal, gold, and even graphite. These varied materials make viewers look closely at each piece. They encourage people to think about what the materials are made of. Fernández believes that materials, especially those found underground, are clues to the past. She calls her works "stacked landscapes." This means she layers different meanings and materials in her sculptures. Through this, her art explores big ideas like how we see ourselves, how different cultures have interacted, and the difficult history of how people have treated the land and each other.

She has won many important awards. These include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and the "Genius Grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2005. In 2011, Barack Obama chose her to be part of the United States Commission of Fine Arts. This made her the first Latina person to serve in that role.

Early Life and Education

Teresita Fernández was born in Miami, Florida. Her parents were from Cuba and had left their home in July 1959. This was six months after the Cuban Revolution. As a child, she spent a lot of time creating art. She worked in the studio of her great aunts and grandmother. They were all skilled seamstresses who had learned their craft in Havana, Cuba.

In 1986, Fernández finished high school at Southwest Miami High School. She then went to Florida International University. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1990. Later, she received her Masters of Fine Art from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992.

Amazing Art Projects

Stacked Waters

In 2009, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas asked Fernández to create a large artwork. This permanent piece is called Stacked Waters. It covers 3,100 square feet of walls in the museum's main hall. The artwork is made of special custom-made acrylic panels. They are arranged in a striped pattern.

The name Stacked Waters reminds us of artist Donald Judd's "stacked" sculptures. These were identical boxes placed vertically on walls. Fernández noticed that the museum's hall looked like a big box. It also had arches like old Roman baths. So, she wanted to fill the space with the illusion of water.

Blind Blue Landscape and Starfield

Also in 2009, Fernández created Blind Blue Landscape. This permanent artwork is at the Benesse Art Site in Naoshima, Japan. It is a collection of glass cubes that show a reflective landscape. You can see this artwork at the Benesse House hotel.

The artist also made a similar artwork called Starfield. It is made of mirrored glass cubes on aluminum. This piece is located in the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Nocturnal (Cobalt Panorama)

In 2013, Fernández's work was shown at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum's Alfond Inn in Winter Park, FL. The artwork displayed there was called "Nocturnal (Cobalt Panorama)".

As Above So Below

In 2014, Fernández had a solo exhibition at Mass MoCA. The show was called Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below. It was part of the museum's fifteenth-year celebration. She showed three new large-scale installations. These were Black Sun, Sfumato (Epic), and Lunar (Theatre). They were all inspired by landscapes.

Fata Morgana

On June 1, 2015, Fata Morgana opened in New York's Madison Square Park. This was her biggest public art project at the time. It was also the largest installation ever in the park's history. The outdoor sculpture was 500 feet long. It had golden, mirror-polished discs that created canopies over the paths. These paths were around the park's central Oval Lawn. Fata Morgana shows how Fernández's art is influenced by how people live and move through spaces.

Seattle Cloud Cover (public commission, 2006)

OVERLOOK

In 2017, Fernández worked with Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. They created an artwork called OVERLOOK: Teresita Fernández confronts Frederic Church at Olana. It was made for the Olana State Historic Site. In this artwork, Fernández challenged the traditional "American Landscape" style of painting. She combined pictures of native people, wide-open horizons, and plants. This was to show the importance of individuals within the landscape.

Autumn (... Nothing Personal)

The Harvard University Committee on the Arts asked Fernández to create a public art project in 2018. It was called Autumn (... Nothing Personal). This circular artwork was placed in Tercentenary Theatre Harvard Yard. It was a physical space for public discussions and performances.

Elemental

In 2019, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Phoenix Art Museum organized Teresita Fernández: Elemental. This was her first big show looking back at her career. It featured artworks from the 1990s to the present day. The exhibition included sculptures, installations, and other mixed media works. These artworks commented on social, geological, and political topics.

Viñales (Mayombe Mississippi)

Also in 2019, Fernández was asked to create a permanent ceramic artwork. It was for the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. This garden is at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA). Viñales (Mayombe Mississippi) is a 60-foot-long ceramic mural. It is placed on the outside wall of the garden’s Pavilion. The artwork was inspired by her earlier Viñales series. It shows Fernández's interest in mixing natural materials with ideas about place and image-making.

Dark Earth

In 2021, Fernández showed "Dark Earth" at the Maria & Alberto de la Cruz Art Gallery. This gallery is at Georgetown University. The exhibit featured a large wall made from charcoal. It also had shiny, golden panels.

Fire (United States of the Americas)

From 2021 to 2023, Fernández was part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Teresita Fernández: Fire (United States of the Americas). She showed her artwork Fire (United States of the Americas). This piece opened a new part of the museum. It is an abstract map made of charcoal. It shows all US states and territories. The artwork explores the history of colonialism, harm to native people, and slavery.

Paradise Parados

Also in 2021, Fernández created a permanent sculpture called Paradise Parados. It was part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)/ Robert W. Wilson Public Art Initiative. The sculpture was installed on the Robert W. Wilson Sculpture Terrace at BAM Strong. This terrace is connected to the historic Harvey Theater. Paradise Parados is made of 3,000 feet of perforated stainless steel. It won the New York City Public Design Commission award for Excellence in Design. The artwork reflects the city life around it. It offers a new way to think about public spaces.

Group Shows and Future Projects

Fernández has also been in many group shows. These include Contemporary Optics at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) in 2021. She was also in 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. This show put Fernández’s art next to the work of famous Minimalist artist Robert Smithson. Their artworks explore the connections between place, site, sight, and time. They use materials, geology, and imaginary maps. The exhibition included over 30 works by Fernández. It was the first time Smithson’s work was shown with a living artist's work.

Fernández is one of 18 artists chosen to create art for the new Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. This terminal is set to open in 2026.

Supporting Other Artists

Fernández is well known for supporting Latino artists. In 2016, she worked with the Ford Foundation. Together, they organized the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium. This was an important meeting of Latino artists. It also included museum directors, curators, scholars, teachers, and funders from all over the country.

The symposium was created to talk about how to show Latino art more widely. This included all kinds of creative arts. In her opening speech for the symposium, Fernández said the event was meant to connect "the powerful and the voiceless."

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

Awards

• 1994: CINTAS Fellowship
• 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
• 2013: Aspen Art Museum Aspen Award for Art (Aspen, CO)
• 2016: Art in General Visionary Artist Honoree (New York, NY)
• 2017: National Academician, National Academy Museum & School (New York, NY)
• 2017: Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers (New York, NY)
• 2017: The Drawing Center 40th Anniversary Honoree (New York, NY)
• 2021: Meridian Cultural Diplomacy Award, Meridian International Center (Washington, D.C.)
• 2021: Award For Excellence in Design, New York City Public Commission (New York, NY)
• 2022: Creative Capital Award (New York, NY)