Teresita Fernández

NOCTURNAL (NEON STARFIELD)

2011
solid graphite on wood panel
12 x 24 x 2 inches

Through her ongoing Nocturnal series, Teresita Fernández explores the material and conceptual properties of graphite. Three-dimensional fragments attached to the surface of a burnished layer of solid graphite create a work that hovers between drawing and relief sculpture. Fernández’s work possesses an awareness of graphite’s history as a mined material, originally discovered in England in the 1500s, thereby making these pieces literal, physical parts of a landscape, as well as representations. A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2005 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003, Brooklyn-based Fernández is featured in numerous permanent collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. The artist was commissioned to create a site-specific work titled Starfield (rendering) for the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.