Teresita Fernández

March 20 - April 25, 1999


Installation view. Photo: Gregory Benson.
This young, Miami-based artist used her residence at San Antonio's ArtPace to produce a new body of work for ICA.

Combining pre-made elements with site-specific manipulations, Fernández addressed issue of architecture and ornamentation and their powerful emotive effects.

Best known for a series of room installations that use mirrors and windows to evoke swimming pools, Fernández deconstructs mundane environments by stripping them of their details to the point of mere suggestion. Her work is defined by viewers' subjective experiences and triggers memories of familiar places as architectural referents. The work's poetic open-ended quality, however, contrasts to the utilitarian frankness of the everyday sites to which it alludes. Fernández explores how space engages viewers and its effects on how people encounter one another. Her installations engender multiple interpretations and resonate within the history of minimal art, as well as within discourses on power relations.


Institute of Contemporary Art | University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 | T 215.898.7108 | F 215.898.5050

Copyright © 2004-2008, Institute of Contemporary Art. All rights reserved.
Website developed by Zero Defect Design LLC.