Ana Teresa Fernandez
2702 23rd St.
San Francisco, Ca 94110
ragazza0007@yahoo.com
(415) 823 39 35

Artist Statement:

As a young girl in Mexico, I learned at an early age about the double standard imposed on women and their sexuality. “Los hombres quieren a una dama en la mesa, y a una puta en la cama, “Men want a lady at the table, and a whore in the bed,” is a statement I heard at fifteen, and still lingers in my ears. For contemporary women, it is often difficult to reconcile the ubiquitous images of whore and virgin in our culture; clean vs. dirty. It is a fine line that becomes the point of demarcation for women to dance around. I explore these territories that encompass different types of boundaries; psychological as well as physical, through performance based paintings.
I first painted women dressed in a tango attire performing cleaning activities or domestic chores within the home. Like in Tango, the women duel their partner, the environment. I use the body as a device for exploration that pushes and pulls the space to its limits, activating it until one feels it pushing back. I then transfer the private actions associated with domestic chores into public settings through my paintings. The dance becomes a battle and amalgamation between physical expectations, advertisement, and predetermined gender notions vs. instinctual desires and self empowerment. I exalt the outlines that define the confinement in the architectural space that try to divide expected behavior and self expression. I blur the distinction of her identity; mother, wife, lover, housekeeper, sister, or sexualized other. This in turn questions the viewer’s notion of intimacy with her and the symbolic socio political stance that evaporates her identity.
My work in painting, performance, and installation demonstrates how women identify their strengths and sensuality in performing labor in which there is no visible economic or social value, and most often is seen as dirty. This intangible dilemma provoked me to do a performance at the San Diego/Tijuana Border, a place I myself had to cross to study and live in the US. In this performance, I used the multiplication of self and the never ending task of cleaning the environment; sweeping the sand on the beach, and vacuuming a dirt road , to accentuate the idea of disposable labor resource. Like in cleaning, the task itself must be done repetitively with no hopes of a promotion or escalating reward. The irony is used to mimic the ongoing social political conflicts that infiltrate people’s home through social osmosis. Hierarchy and dominance is the product of exclusion by the physical walls that stand vertically dividing countries. They underscore the intersection of everyday tasks and fantasy from both sides of the political/gender divide. This in turn penetrates the private by the psychological walls that confine and divide genders in a domestic space.

Curriculum

Education

05/06 MFA San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca
05/04 BFA San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca

Exhibitions

05/06 2nd City Council Gallery Juried Show, Long Beach, Ca,
Juried by Alma Ruiz, Curator of Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles
02/06 “(RE)Generation” Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, Ca
11/05 “My Country Right or Left”Juried Show, Horton Gallery, Delta College Stockton,Ca
Juried by Laurie Lazer, Curator of the Luggage Store
11/05 “Pachanga” Galeria de la Raza Auction, San Francisco, Ca
09/05 Murphy and Cadogan Exhibition, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, SF, Ca
05/05 Spin Gallery, San Raphael, Ca
04/05 “Bull’s Eye” San Francisco Art Institute in collaboration with Helsinki Academy of Fine Arts
02/05 The Cell Space, San Francisco, Ca
09/04 SOMA Art Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
09/04 Mission Arts and Performance Project, San Francisco, Ca
05/04 Tijuana the Third Nation, Centro Cultural Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico
07/04 Balazo Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
02/04 Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca
04/01 Southwestern College Student Exhibition, San Diego, Ca
09/98 Casa de la Cultura, Permanent Museum Collection, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Awards and Acknowledgments

11/05 “My Country Left or Right” Merit Award, Horton Gallery, Delta College, Stockton,Ca
05/05 Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, Ca
09/04 San Francisco Art Institute Catalogue 2004/2005/2006, San Francisco, Ca
2004 Cover Page for Creative Outlook Magazine, 2004 Edition, National Distribution
09/04 MFA Fellowship, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca
09/01 Merit Scholarship, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca

Professional Related Experience

08/06 Youth Art Program, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca
07/06 Painting Class, Jacmel Art Center, Jacmel, Haiti
07/06 Residency in Jacmel Art Center, Jacmel, Haiti
06/06 Mural Class for the Children of the Disappeared Women of Ciudad Juarez, Nuestras Hijas Coop.
Juarez, Mexico
05/now Bilingual Tour Guide, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
03/05 Volunteer for Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, Ca
04/now Translator for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
04/05 Teacher’s Assistant Advanced Painting Class, Brett Reichman, San Francisco Art Institute
04/05 Lecturer, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Ca
04/05 Immerging Educator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts/ Leadership Charter Schoo
03/04 Internship, Paule Anglim Gallery, San Francisco, Ca
03/04 Substitute Painting Teacher, New College, San Francisco, Ca

Murals

12/04 “For the Maya People” La Palma, Florida Street, San Francisco, Ca
07/04 “Pre-Columbian/ Post/ Today’s Revolutionaries”Clarion Alley Mural Project, Clarion Street,
San Francisco, Ca
06/04 “Quan Yin” and “Despierta” Quan Yin Healing Center, Calladonia Street, San Francisco, Ca
04/04 Marcus Garvey Mural, 3rd Street, San Francisco, Ca
03/04 Sunnyvale Street Mural Project, San Francisco, Ca

Collections

06/09 Collection of Museum Casa de la Cultura, San Luis Potosi, Mexico
08/03 Robert Patterson Private Collection, San Francisco, Ca