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Headlands Center for the Arts opened as an interdisciplinary residency program in 1982, ten years after the abandoned military base it inhabits had been acquired by the National Park Service. The Park Service’s master plan included the presence of several independent nonprofits nestled into the coastal wilderness of California’s Marin Headlands. Headlands Center for the Arts took up residence in the then-dilapidated Fort Barry—a swath of buildings that were erected in 1907 and included soldiers’ bunkers and officers’ quarters alike—the perfect architecture for private studios, exhibition spaces, communal housing accommodations, and administrative offices. By nature of Headlands’ unique location and the trailblazing vision of those who were among its first organizers and restorers (including the artists David Ireland, Mark Thompson, and Ann Hamilton, and Headlands’ first executive director, Jennifer Dowley), Headlands quickly became a place where alternative practices could be developed. Artwork that did not manifest as objects (and thus had been underrepresented in the commercial gallery scene) could be created there and brought into a sphere of discourse, right alongside and in natural synergy with work that did.
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In the sculptures and paintings of Patricia Fernández, objects and images are often incomplete or partially hidden, and information is divorced from its original context. Her own family memories and archives serve as the foundation for her work. Fernández’s childhood in Spain was filled with family and friends whose lives and ideas were shaped by the repressive dictatorship of Francisco Franco (r. 1936–75). The political conditions gave rise to a sense of permanent exile for much of the population, and her family moved frequently, returning to Spain every few years. As a result, her familial archaeological excavation is both political and psychological, exploring the instability of memory and the reliance upon a murky family history for the construction of identity. Found objects and original sculptures and paintings all play a role in her visual language. Her wood sculptures are copies of items made by her grandfather, a traditional wood-carver. The process of copying and elaborating on the objects allows Fernández to connect to her own uncertain history and to open a space for viewers to consider the philosophical puzzle of memory and identity.
Her shows include: Made in LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum in Los
Angeles (2012), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant Exhibition at
the CUE Art Foundation in New York (2011), and the Marc di Suvero’s
Peace Tower in Los Angeles (2011). She has received awards and
fellowships such as: the Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation Award
(2011), the California Community Foundation Emerging Artist
Fellowship (2011), and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award (2010).
She received her BFA from the University of California, Los
Angeles, her MA from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, and her MFA
from the California Institute of the Arts.
For additional information about this artist, visit Mutual Art
