Andrés Fernández Colombian, July 19, 1991

Fernández was born in Bogotá on July 19, 1991, and his exploration of the arts began at an early age. After a psychologist suggested taking up art as an outlet for his attention difficulties, Fernández’s mother enrolled him in drawing, clay modeling, and eventually painting. He was more introverted compared to his classmates and quickly immersed himself in his practice, devoting himself to drawing and painting. Before deciding to properly pursue his passion, Fernández worked as a waiter at a brewery, photographing scenes and developing ideas for future works. Some of his earliest inspiration came from photographs taken by his grandmother, which remains foundational to his practice even now: “For me, photography is something more intimate... I keep the photos for myself or use them as references for paintings. I don't consider myself a good photographer, but I’ve always thought about how a photo could look like a painting." [1] These images of family outings, portraits, and the everyday became the source of inspiration for his body of work.

He began exploring oil painting after encouragement from close friends, and initially, he struggled with the medium, but “When I felt I could approach it and have a conversation with it… I felt love. It was as if it asked me, ‘But why are you afraid?’” [1] Fernández decided to pursue art formally and studied visual arts at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, graduating in 2018. After embracing oil painting, Fernández has created an oeuvre that explores the tension between intimacy and distance. He cites Francis Bacon, Antonio Saura, and Cecily Brown as artistic influences, which is evident in his expressive technique that creates a dynamism on his canvases. In his work, Fernández explores the idea of memory and its manifestations in various images and mediums through the language of proxemics, or the study of physical distance in social and relational contexts. “That relationship of distance or physical and emotional closeness that occurs between bodies, how they attract, repel each other, overlap or isolate themselves. I'm interested in how those spatial links can suggest tension, intimacy, conflict or loneliness.” [2]

Central to Fernández’s practice is the negotiation between figuration and abstraction. Through the manipulation of the medium’s application and the work’s composition, he achieves a distinct ambiguity in order to emphasize his depiction of proxemic dynamics over the figurative image: “It attracts me to how painting can convey not only the appearance of the body, but the presence, its energy and its relationship with other bodies or with the environment.” [2] Fernández achieves this through a process of construction and deconstruction of an image, working in layers with the oil paint and evolving with the piece as improvisations and accidents become a part of the work, “I take advantage of its ability to create textures and contrasts, but I am also interested in taking it to the limit, exploring different forms of application and manipulation of the material.” [2]