Meet Over Lunch: Adrián Fernández in conversation with Meyken Barreto

Virtual Talk
Thursday May 12, 2022 | 1:00pm

Following a visit of the artist’s open studio exhibition in midtown Manhattan, curator Meyken Barreto engages in a virtual Meet Over Lunch discussion with the Cuban artist Adrián Fernández. Together they will unpack Fernández’s working processes, review the artist’s practice, the collaborative nature of his works and how he weaves relations between photography, architecture and sculpture. Fernández and Barreto will focus in particular on the conceptual implications of the series Memorias Pendientes (Pending Memories) which merges documentary photography, sculpture, and installation art and makes reference to Cuba’s Revolutionary visual culture. A 2022 publication by Turner titled Adrián Fernández: Pending Memories with texts by Iván de la Nuez and Malcolm Daniel is available here.

Visit to the artist’s studio is possible upon appointment.
Please email: adrianfernandezmilanes@gmail.com

About

Adrián Fernández studied visual arts at the San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy (2004) and at the Superior Institute of Arts (2010) in Havana, Cuba. He works as an independent artist and as a professor of Documentary Photography for New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Office of Special Programs Abroad. Early in his career he began to experiment with photographic media, in which he has developed much of his art, expanding his practice in recent years to three-dimensional installation and sculpture works. The metal structures found in his sculptures result from the combination of simple geometric figures that are interconnected giving shape to more complex volumes, which sometimes appear to be unfinished or abandoned constructions in the process of creation. His photography has developed from black-and-white with a documentary perspective to studio photography and the use of digital images with computer generated content. His work is inspired by the symbolic connection established between objects, belongings, architectural forms, images or fragments of the material world that inhabit and at the same time modulate people’s daily lives. He explores their impact on the shaping of personal memory, collective history and the creation of new cultural paradigms in contemporary society. Adrián Fernández has exhibited in group and solo shows in Cuba, United States, Mexico, Panama, France, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland. His work can be found in the collections of The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 21C Museum Hotels, Perez Art Museum Miami, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana.

Meyken Barreto is currently an adjunct lecturer at City College of New York, she is also a curator and art writer. Meyken has served as Regional Director at Artist Pension Trust (APT), Gallery Manager at Y Gallery in New York, and Studio Manager at Los Carpinteros Studio in Madrid and Havana. She has taught Art History at Havana University and San Geronimo College in Havana. She has lectured in international institutions such as Universidad Complutense in Madrid and Martin Luther University, Halle (Saale). In 2018 she was Curator in Residence at Residency Unlimited, NY and in 2009 she won Cuba’s National Curatorship Award.

This program benefits from the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund. This program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.