“Teresita Fernández: Caribbean Cosmos” is on view from September 14 to November 5, 2022, at Lehmann Maupin, London (situated at 1 Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London).
Lehmann Maupin proclaims Caribbean Cosmos, an exhibition of recent work by New York-based artist Teresita Fernández. Recognized for her expansive observe characterised by an curiosity in materiality, conceptual wayfinding, and reflective engagement, Fernández creates immersive work that critically rethinks panorama and place. Incorporating numerous historic and cultural references, Fernández challenges entrenched spatial frameworks and poetically exposes the historical past of colonization and the inherent violence embedded in how we think about and outline each land and placement. On view at Lehmann Maupin London from September 14–November 5, 2022, Caribbean Cosmos features a charcoal sculpture, a large-scale, glazed ceramic panel, and a brand new collection of seascape dissolves rendered on copper. The artist shall be in dialog with Rachel Thomas, Chief Curator of the Hayward Gallery on September 15 on the Royal Geographical Society, London. On October 11, the gallery will host a dialog between Fernández and Sir David Adjaye at 4 Cromwell Place.
In Caribbean Cosmos, Fernández presents a nuanced understanding of the Caribbean, wanting past dominant, continental narratives and as an alternative contemplating the area as emblematic of an expansive, decentralized bodily geography, and a world, diasporic way of thinking. Utilizing this dispersed lens, she unravels dynamic strands of rhizomatic connection, sprawling landscapes, and a metaphysical understanding of the pure world. Fernández makes use of earthly parts—together with fired clay, etched and polished copper, and strong charcoal produced from burned bushes—to summon a churning materials world within the ever-changing flux of decay, evolution, and renewal. In Caribbean Cosmos Fernández infuses matter with that means, reaching a kind of alchemy within the transformation of her uncooked supplies.
Fernández usually shifts between the cosmic and the microscopic, the subterranean and the firmament, and the geological and the ephemeral—usually inside a single work. The titular Caribbean Cosmos (2022) is a 12-foot panel composed of 1000’s of tiny ceramic tesserae, that are glazed with minerals from the earth and fired at excessive temperatures, mimicking volcanic processes. The work depicts swirling shapes that recommend colliding galaxies, archipelagos, aerial views of hurricanes, and vortex rings comparable to these discovered within the tributary techniques of the human physique. Fernández’s adept manipulation of scale reminds us that the bodily forces shaping the universe are the identical as people who govern our personal bodily rhythms. [. . .]
Fernández’s complicated intertwining of fabric and that means additionally figures prominently in Pendent(Lynched Land) (2022), which depicts a battered palm tree frond hanging ominously from a hemp rope. The somber wall sculpture consists of textured, hand-carved charcoal, a cloth that’s itself created from burned bushes, and the work highlights Fernández’s give attention to uncooked supplies drawn from the earth. [. . .]
Anchoring the second half of the exhibition is Kalunga(Copper Planet) (2022), through which a celestial copper physique floats above a seemingly tranquil sea. On this work and the smaller seascapes that comprise Kalunga(Maria/Marea) (2022), Fernández makes use of patina on copper panel to dissolve materials and picture, creating fluid motion that introduces a component of probability into the composition. In Kalunga(Copper Planet) the impact suggests windswept clouds encircling the celestial physique, which is related alchemically to Venus, a planet related to the female throughout numerous historical cosmologies. Probably the most reflective aspect of the panel, this heat, glowing sphere turns into like a wanting glass, animating the viewer’s gaze and merging it with the nocturnal scene. The title references the Kalunga line, a watery threshold dividing the religious and bodily worlds that figures prominently in non secular traditions within the Congo Basin in addition to Afro Caribbean traditions, and which is usually related to the Atlantic Ocean. Fabricated from two flush however separate copper panels, the piece has a sculptural high quality that creates a felt bodily boundary dividing the waters above from these beneath. [. . .]
[Image above: Kalunga (Maria/Marea) (2022), Teresita Fernández. Photo: Daniel Kukla; courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London.]
For full description, see https://www.lehmannmaupin.com/exhibitions/teresita-fernandez12/press-release
Additionally see https://information.artnet.com/buyers-guide/spotlight-teresita-fernandez-lehmann-maupin-2167680