For Art Basel Miami Beach 2019, Patricia Fernández presents an installation of hand-crafted wood sculptures, oil paintings, and ephemera within a reconstruction of her grandfather's living room in Spain, which doubles as his woodworking studio. Fernández's grandfather sends his sketches and cardboard studies to her in the U.S. Since he can no longer carve due to deteriorating eyesight, these become proposals for future works which he cannot himself complete. A clock, made by Fernández from one such drawing, is a central reminder of the passage of time and the workings of memory within this recreated space—and of that real place where her grandfather continues to live and work. A table and chairs additionally populate the space of the booth, along with a shelf-like sculpture supporting various boxes and drawings. All furniture and sculptures are hand-carved by Fernández in her grandfather's style. A pervasive inscribed "x" motif fills the booth walls and wooden objects; inherited from her grandfather, it marks a throughline between their shared practices.
Patricia Fernández (b. 1980, Burgos, Spain; lives and works in Los Angeles) received a BFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 2002 and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2010. Fernández has had solo exhibitions at Holiday Forever, Jackson Hole, WY (2020); Todd Madigan Gallery, California State University, Bakersfield (2018); Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Los Angeles, CA (2015); Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Spain (2015); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica (2014); and LA><ART, Los Angeles (2014). Selected group exhibitions were held at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA (2019); Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana (2017); Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles (2017); Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2012); and Clifton Benevento, New York (2010). Fernández is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2019); Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2017-18); the Speranza Foundation Lincoln City Fellowship (2015), France-Los Angeles Exchange Grant (2012), and California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2011). She has been an artist resident at Récollets, Paris, France (2016); D-Flat, México, D.F. (2016); Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA (2015); 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA (2014); and Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, Italy (2013).