Duet

A true interdisciplinarian, Fernandes weaves together performance, sculpture, photography, installation and more in his ongoing examination of intersectional culture, highlighting queer communion, cultural dissonance, and the contemporary concerns of marginalized communities. Fernandes employs choreography as an instrument of embodiment and radical visibility. His photography documents these performances, cannily distilling the actions and movements. In Duet, sculptures commissioned by The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation become both backdrop and performer, as two dancers interact with the fabric works. The performers are obscured and revealed by a set of curtains or supported by cushions fabricated to appear as stone. These works respond to the multifarious practice of sculptor and performer Scott Burton. Burton's performances were composed in restrained tableaus that explored the agency of touch, one such being scored against a curtained backdrop, and later, his use of granite and rock in sculptural furnishings mediated the movement of the body in space, all of which Fernandes considers here. The lens of the medium-format camera generates a voyeuristic grit, capturing moments of intimate embrace and desire-fueled tension. Both a devotion to the import of community and a reminder of the surveillance of the body, the movements and curtains reference the practice of "cruising," a nonverbal communication method by which queer intimacy is sought and discovered. The curtains are printed with seemingly innocuous smudges, yet their placement echoes the act of swiping on dating apps, a gestural reference to the contemporary version of the form. Fernandes interprets Burton's performative navigation of body language and queer liberation by inciting the corporeal to blend with the architectural, referencing the way the body, and thus the self, moves through and is molded by its environment. In the images, concrete walls and floors are in direct contrast with the plush cushions and tactile curtains, and the intentional use of shadow and light is wielded as shapers of space and atmosphere. Hard and soft, seen and unseen, Fernandes posits a fluid liminality in his work, reflective of his own experiences and those of his community. Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) attended York University for his bachelor's with honors (2002), received an MFA from the University of Western Ontario (2005), and is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007). Fernandes is an internationally recognized artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Based in Chicago, the artist’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Committed to creating new spaces and new forms of agency, Fernandes’ projects take on hybrid forms: part ballet, part queer dance party, part protest as a means to foster collaboration and solidarity through actions of generosity and kindness. Fernandes is a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship. In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award and is the recipient of a prestigious Canada Council New Chapters grant (2017), the Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019), and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020). Fernandes’ projects have been shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); the Museum of Modern Art (New York); The Getty Museum (Los Angeles); the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), among many others. In his home city of Chicago, he has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Graham Foundation, and DePaul Art Museum. He is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Art Theory and Practice and is co-represented by Chicago’s Monique Meloche Gallery and Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC. Recent projects include a featured installation for Times Square Arts’ Midnight Moments, and contributions of sculptures, performances, and presentations to exhibitions at MCA Denver, CO; The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; Art on The Mart, Chicago, IL; the Munch Museum, Oslo; The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; The Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, and a commission by The DR Vocal Ensemble, Copenhagen.

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522 W 24th St

Chelsea, NY