On view March 6 through April 26, 2020
Main Gallery, SFAI—Fort Mason Campus
Opening Reception: Friday, March 6 | 6–9pm (Performance at 7pm)
(San Francisco, CA)—Creativity Explored (CE) and San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) present Of Here From There - De Aquí Desde Allá, the first large-scale project featuring the work of CE artists with developmental disabilities. Created under the direction of Ana Teresa Fernández, the immersive installation surrounds visitors with fantastical, large-scale sculptures on which animated and time lapse videos are projected. Sculptural surfaces seem to undulate and pulsate, providing an exhilarating experience of the unique art and mark-making processes of almost 50 CE artists.
The videos capture the artists’ drawing processes, from Jose Nuñez’s dense repeating bird figures to the growing labyrinths of lines of Roland Record. These images multiply and spread quickly over the white surfaces of the giant flowers, clouds, floating boat, and dragon sculptures designed by CE artists in the installation.
Fernández, who received her MFA from SFAI in 2006 and taught in the New Genres department from 2008-2018, facilitated more than 15 art making workshops in 2019 at Creativity Explored as a visiting artist-in-residence, exploring ideas of movement, migration, home, and place with the artists. But she became increasingly interested in their very personal visual vocabularies and intricate mark-making. “Their voices are their marks, their depictions,” she says. “Their work is how they narrate or explain how it is they see the world. And through this collaboration, we wanted to recreate their magical landscape. A moment where we can be and exist in that world of marks.”
Fernández documented the artists as they painted on translucent vellum, videotaping their brushstrokes from the other side of the easel as they worked and then creating time lapse videos of the developing images. Other artists worked on iPads so that the images could be rendered into digital animation. Examples of the 70 videos that will be used in the installation are available through Creativity Explored’s Instagram profile. More videos and information about the process behind the exhibition are documented on the Creativity Explored Tumblr.
“The day Ana Teresa first visited the Creativity Explored studio, she instinctively grasped the powerful and passionate mark-making that fuels our artists’ practice,” says Linda Johnson, Executive Director, Creativity Explored. “This big, beautiful installation connects the artistry of people with disabilities with a wider audience, and offers insight into their journeys.”
“Fernandez is a shining example of an SFAI alum—a fiercely talented artist and thought leader who demonstrates the value and possibilities of human connectivity and collaboration,” says Gordon Knox, President, SFAI. “SFAI has long held to the ethos that art is integral to a healthy, progessive, and vibrant society. When our graduates and faculty bring their vision and technical know-how to students and the wider community, everyone benefits.”
At the free opening reception on Friday, March 6 from 6 to 9pm, the installation will be activated with performances by poet Leticia Hernández Linares, dancer Vanessa Sanchez (La Mezcla), and musician Tommy Guerrero. The performance begins at 7pm.
Of Here From There - De Aquí Desde Allá is generously supported by Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Grants for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the Koret Foundation and California Arts Council.
About Ana Teresa Fernández
Ana Teresa Fernández, born in 1981 in Tampico, Mexico, lives and works in San Francisco. Her work explores the politics of intersectionality through time-based actions and social gestures, translated into masterful oil paintings, installations, and videos.
Within her work, performance becomes a tool for investigation as strong feminist undercurrents flow together with post-colonial rhetoric. Through her work, the artist illuminates the psychological and physical barriers that define gender, race, and class in Western society and the global south.
Fernández has exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV, Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Humboldt State University, Eureka, CA; the Tijuana Biennial, Tijuana, Mexico; Snite Museum at Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, IN; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA and The Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA.
Her work has been collected by institutions such the Denver Art Museum, the Nevada Museum of Art, and Kadist Art Foundation. The Headlands Center for the Arts granted Fernández the Tournesol Award in 2008 and her films have been screened at festivals internationally including, but not limited to, MADRID International Film Festival, Madrid, Spain, Claremont Film Festival, Claremont-Ferrand, France, the International Frauen Film Festival, Dortmund, Germany, the Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, the San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Diego, CA, and the Honolulu Film Festival, Honolulu, HI. In 2018, Fernández’s solo exhibition for Gallery Wendi Norris’s offsite exhibition in Miami will travel to the Grunwald Gallery at Indiana University and be accompanied by a publication.
anateresafernandez.com
Instagram @anateresafernandez
About Creativity Explored
Creativity Explored is San Francisco’s premier nonprofit art studio and gallery for artists with developmental disabilities.
Over 36 years, CE has facilitated the careers of hundreds of artists with developmental disabilities by offering space, support, and representation. The organization establishes these artists’ work as an emerging and increasingly important contribution to the contemporary art world. CE artists have seen their work exhibited in museums and galleries in 14 countries, and have earned nearly $2 million from their art. Each year, over 10,000 people visit its studios in the Mission District, which are often described as energizing, magical, and joyful.
Today, CE artists serve on the organization’s staff, create alongside artists of all abilities in local art studios, and teach the public. In 2018, CE was recognized as a San Francisco Legacy Business. In 2019, CE was included on the 5th Annual YBCA 100 list and voted Best Nonprofit for the SF Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay Awards.
creativityexplored.org
Instagram: @creativityexplored
About San Francisco Art Institute
Founded in 1871, SFAI is one of the country's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher education in the practice and study of contemporary art. As a diverse community of working artists and scholars, SFAI provides students with a rigorous education in the arts and preparation for a life in the arts through an immersive studio environment, an integrated liberal arts and art history curriculum, and critical engagement with the world. Committed to educating artists who will shape the future of art, culture, and society, SFAI fosters creativity and original thinking in an open, experimental, and interdisciplinary context.
General Information
San Francisco Art Institute – Fort Mason’s galleries are open to the public Wednesday - Sunday 11am - 7pm and are located on Pier 2 within Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Blvd., San Francisco, CA.
Galleries are free to the public. For more information, the public may visit sfai.edu or call (415) 749-4563.
MEDIA CONTACTS
SFAI
Nina Sazevich
Public Relations
415.752.2483
nina@sazevichpr.com
Creativity Explored
Michael Korcek
Director of Marketing & Partnerships
415.863.2108
michaelkorcek@creativityexplored.org
