Teresita Fernandez has had a big year. From her monumental, canopy-like installation Fata Morgana, composed of mirror-polished metal discs, which drew a record number of daily admirers to New York’s Madison Square Park over the summer, to the thoughtful installation Double Glass River which currently resides at Grace Farms, the MacArthur ‘genius award’ winning artist has become a formidable force in the art world.
This week, Lehmann Maupin’s New York gallery celebrates Fernández’s latest sculptural works, a series of veritable ‘intimate interior landscapes’ in concrete, cast bronze, malachite, and glazed ceramic.
For this riveting body of work, Fernández (who served on President Obama’s U.S. Commission of Fine Arts) turned to the Viñales Valley, an iconic and surreal landscape with extensive caves in rural Cuba, for both inspiration and palette in exploring scale. Rather than turn to marble or materials sourced from the streets, Fernández first plucked up emerald green chunks of malachite. Her mixed-media sculpture Viñales (Reclining Nude) is composed of concrete sculptural bases topped by the glimmering mineral.
'I was fascinated by the saturated rich greens and turquoise colours in malachite and the way the natural clustered formations resembled aerial views of lush landscapes; how something on a small scale such as that mineral sample could suggest the vastness of places, maps, regions, and rainforests all seen from above,’ Fernández notes from her Boerum Hill studio.
Malachite’s quixotic quality with flecks of silver is also reflected in a set of ceramic panels measuring twelve feet in length. Sparkling in various shades of green, blue, black and tobacco brown, the panels, made of some 1,000 minute tiles, are all-encompassing in nature.
Fernández, who served on President Obama’s U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, turned to the Viñales Valley, an iconic and surreal landscape with extensive caves in rural Cuba, as inspiration for its palette and exploring scale. Pictured: ’Viñales (Cervix)’, 2015, mixed media on wood panel
Her mixed-media sculpture ’Viñales (Reclining Nude)’ (pictured) is composed of concrete sculptural bases topped by glimmering malachite
'I was fascinated by the saturated rich greens and turquoise colors in malachite and the way the natural clustered formations resembled aerial views of lush landscapes; how something on a small scale such as that mineral sample could suggest the vastness of places, maps, regions, and rainforests all seen from above,’ Fernández notes
The sculptural works come together like a series of veritable ‘intimate interior landscapes’, made from concrete, cast bronze, malachite, and glazed ceramic
INFORMATION
‘Teresita Fernández’ will be on view until 2 January 2016
ADDRESS
Lehmann Maupin
536 W 22nd Street
New York
-
Gorden Wagener leaves the helm of Mercedes-Benz design after 28 years with the companyThe German designer is stepping down from the role of chief design officer at Mercedes-Benz. We look back at his influence and impact on the world of automotive and luxury design
-
These Christmas cards sent by 20th-century architects tell their own storiesHandcrafted holiday greetings reveal the personal side of architecture and design legends such as Charles and Ray Eames, Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
-
Lucila Safdie’s ‘feminine and surreal’ womenswear is inspired by teenage bedrooms and internet loreThe latest in our Uprising series, the Central Saint Martins graduate is honing a pastel-shaded vision rooted in depictions of girlhood in film and literature
-
Nadia Lee Cohen distils a distant American memory into an unflinching new photo book‘Holy Ohio’ documents the British photographer and filmmaker’s personal journey as she reconnects with distant family and her earliest American memories
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Ed Ruscha’s foray into chocolate is sweet, smart and very AmericanArt and chocolate combine deliciously in ‘Made in California’, a project from the artist with andSons Chocolatiers
-
Inside the work of photographer Seydou Keïta, who captured portraits across West Africa‘Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens’, an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, celebrates the 20th-century photographer
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekFrom sumo wrestling to Singaporean fare, medieval manuscripts to magnetic exhibitions, the Wallpaper* team have traversed the length and breadth of culture in the capital this week
-
María Berrío creates fantastical worlds from Japanese-paper collages in New YorkNew York-based Colombian artist María Berrío explores a love of folklore and myth in delicate and colourful works on paper
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekAs we approach Frieze, our editors have been trawling the capital's galleries. Elsewhere: a 'Wineglass' marathon, a must-see film, and a visit to a science museum
-
June Leaf’s New York survey captures a life in motionJune Leaf made art in many forms for over seven decades, with an unstoppable energy and fierce appetite leading her to rationalise life in her own terms.
