Lehmann Maupin is pleased to present a group of new works by Teresita Fernández, alumna of the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, for her fourth exhibition at the gallery’s Chelsea location. Made entirely of graphite, the works in the exhibition establish a unique and unconventional vocabulary with the material itself. Referring to Borrowdale, England where graphite was first discovered and mined in the early 1500s, Fernández pushes the boundaries of this once sought-after and coveted material. Reimagining the graphite landscape of Borrowdale, her works reflect elements of sculpture and installation and redefine the notion of precisely what constitutes a drawing.
Teresita Fernández’s work has explored issues in contemporary art related to problems of perception and the fabrication of the natural world. Often her sculptures present spectacular optical illusions and evoke rainbows, sunlight, fire and water. For a 2002 solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery she made works which consisted of abstracted representations of natural phenomena such as a sweeping waterfall made from acrylic bands of white and blue and a parabolic sand dune covered in glass beads representing the shimmering effect of light on sand. In 2005 she exhibited the Ring of Fire, a piece created during her residency at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia and constructed from thousands of silk threads from Scalamandre. The threads were held taught between two rings and suspended from the ceiling, creating a unique optical illusion of transparency and dense color. In 2007 Fernández had her first gallery exhibition since being awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005. The exhibition, also at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, focused on the artist’s interest in opacity, transparency and the psychology of looking. Fernández employed mirrors throughout the exhibition, with specific reference to an 18th century painter’s tool containing a lustrous black mirror used to view tonalities in the landscape.
Teresita Fernandez
22 October - 19 December 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 22, 6-8pm
Lehman Maupin
540 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
t 212-255-2923
Drawn Waters (Borrowdale) (detail), 2009
natural and machined graphite on steel armature
121.18 x 43.5 x 86 inches
307.8 x 110.5 x 218.4 cm
Installation at USF Contemporary Art Museum, 2009
Photo : Aaron Igler, Greenhouse Media
Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
