Ana Teresa Fernández
(b. 1981, Tampico, Mexico) Ana Teresa Fernández’s work explores the politics of intersectionality through time-based actions and social gestures, translated into masterful oil and gouache paintings, installations and videos. Operating formally at the intersection of land art, performance and history painting, Fernandez mines 21st-century feminism, post-colonial landscapes, and the psychological barriers to empathy. Fernández has exhibited at Denver Art Museum, CO; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix; the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University, Bloomington; and The Oakland Museum of Art, CA, among others. Her work has been collected by institutions such as the Denver Art Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, and Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco and Paris, among others. Gallery Wendi Norris presented a solo exhibition of her work in Miami titled, Of Bodies and Borders in November 2019, which traveled to the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University Bloomington and was accompanied by a publication. This body of work was a highlight of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s exhibition, Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – Now, which closed in January 2020.
On The Artwork
Art+Action commissioned artist Arleene Correa Valencia and Ana Teresa Fernandez’s collaboration SOMOS VISIBLES / WE ARE NOT INVISIBLE. The ongoing project takes a political stance on visibility through the use of high-vis ready-to-wear safety gear present throughout many labor industries, as it relates to the invisibility of the undocumented in the U.S. In the context of the 2020 Census, the project seeks to engage undocumented communities in dialogue about their fears of being counted, seen, and having their voices heard to receive their fair share of resources. Upon demonstrating proof of completing the Census, the artists gave participants complimentary SOMOS VISIBLES sweatshirts.
Originally planned to be brought into neighborhoods—including the Mission (during Art+Action Coalition Partner Acción Latina’s bi-monthly community art event Paseo Artistico), SOMA (at YBCA), and Napa (at the Napa Valley flea market)—due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was reimagined online through a series of videos, in which the artists engaged in dialogue about how the Census impacts our most vulnerable. The videos—released as a part of Art+Action and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ art & civic online experience Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?—demonstrated how to iron the phrases “SOMOS VISIBLES” and “WE ARE NOT INVISIBLE” on to high-vis sweatshirts, and how to make SOMOS face masks. The artists also were interviewed in the YBCA Zine: Part 1 + Part 2.
The project was made possible through the generous support of Levi’s. To receive a SOMOS VISIBLES sweatshirt, send proof that you’ve taken your 2020 Census before October 31 to hello@artandaction.us.
