January 13 - February 17, 2024
From Lydia Street Gallery:
“In Sporadic Moments (Memorias Sueltas), Ecuadorian-American artist Sandra C. Fernández utilizes pages from a cherished 1800s book of crimes and misdemeanors as the foundation for works that explore her realities of exile, dislocation, relocation, memory, and the opportunity for self-conscious identity construction and reconstruction. By composing new works made of repurposed drawings, etchings, silkscreens, relief prints, and cyanotypes created by the artist over the past 30 years, Fernández offers an alternate way of recalling the past that facilitates healing and renewal through the re-assemblage of memories of familial strength and resilience.
BIO
Sandra C. Fernandez is an Ecuadorian American artist currently living in the US, whose work is rooted in the trans-border experiences of exile, dislocation, relocation, memory, and self-conscious identity construction/reconstruction. Her practice includes—separately and in combination—printmaking, photography, artist’s books, soft sculpture/fiber art, assemblages, and installations; using various materials, such as paper, thread, metal, wood, organic materials, and small found objects.
Fernández was born in New York, was raised in Quito, Ecuador, and migrated back to the United States as a young adult. She received a Master of Arts degree (M.A.) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (M.F.A.) with concentrations in Printmaking, Photography, and Book Arts, from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She taught for over 20 years at various Universities in the United States, including Hunter College in NY, Monmouth University in New Jersey, the University of Texas at Austin, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Illinois Wesleyan University, and Illinois State University. She has been the director of the Printmaking Center of New Jersey, the director of the Guest Artist in Printmaking Program at the University of Texas in Austin, the director of Wesleyan University’s Gallery in Bloomington, Illinois, and currently the Executive director of Consejo Grafico Nacional. She is also the owner of Sandra Fernandez Art where she maintains an active studio practice.
Her work has been widely exhibited and collected in numerous cities in the US and abroad. She’s had over twenty Individual exhibitions and more than two hundred group exhibitions in the United States, Mexico, Perú, Ecuador, Argentina, Canada, Palestine, Spain, Italy, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Indonesia. Fernandez’s works are represented in public collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Library of Congress, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, in Washington DC.; The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) Artist’s Book Collection and The MOMA Franklin Furnace Artist Book Collection in New York, NY.; The Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX; The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach California, The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) in TX, The Museo de la Casa de la Cultura in Quito Ecuador, the Kohler Art Library in Madison- WI, and the Bibliotéque Nationale in Paris, to name a few. Her work is also in many private collections including the Gilberto & Dolores Cardenas Collection of Latino Art.
*This exhibition is a part of Print Austin (1/15 -2/15/24) during the course of her exhibition.
**The Blanton Museum of Art has recently acquired a photograph by Sandra C. Fernandez. It’s included in the exhibition, “Unbreakable: Feminist Visions from the Gilberto Cárdenas & Dolores Garcia Collection” in the Latino Art Gallery, on view through Sunday, March 31st. “
Artist talk: January 27, 2024 | 6–9 pm
1200 East 11th Street #109
Austin, 78702 Texas
(512) 524-1051
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