Veronica Fernandez

Biography

Veronica Fernandez, born in 1998 in New Jersey, is a mixed media artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Her artistic practice revolves around large-scale oil on canvas paintings and sculptural installations that delve into her past experiences, familial struggles, and inherited trauma. With a profound connection to her personal history, Fernandez’s work reflects a deep exploration of childhood memories and the emotions associated with challenging life experiences.

Throughout her artistic process, Fernandez engages in various creative methods, including poetry writing, sketching, and referencing old family photographs. These elements contribute to the rich narrative embedded in her pieces, inviting viewers into psychological worlds where repressed memories often resurface. The artist’s dirty brushstrokes and the thick application of oil paint directly from the tube result in textured canvases, making her physical presence evident in the artwork.

Fernandez’s work, shown both nationally and internationally, is characterized by a unique aesthetic. One notable feature is the emphasis on texture, achieved through the gushing and layering of paint, giving her pieces a cakey and tactile quality. In many of her artworks, Fernandez fills in objects or clothing by drawing on the canvas straight from the tube, adding to the overall textured effect. Another aesthetic commonality is the juxtaposition of more rendered and detailed areas with washier, more abstract elements, creating a dynamic interplay that enhances the illusion of existing within a psychological space. This contrast is achieved through the use of patterns, detailed depictions of people, or blocks of color.

Veronica Fernandez earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her work not only reflects her artistic skill but also serves as a powerful exploration of personal and collective memories, inviting viewers to connect with the layers of emotion embedded in her textured canvases.

Some paintings by Veronica Fernandez

Interview with Veronica Fernandez

1) Hi Veronica, welcome at UltraContemporaries.com. Can you introduce yourself as an artist? How did you begin and where are you at the moment?

Hello! Thank you for having me! My name is Veronica Fernandez, but most people tend to call me by my nickname Ronnie. I am a mixed media artist primarily focused on painting from New Jersey, recently based in Los Angeles. I graduated from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, June of 2020 and relocated to California with my family shortly after. I started consistently painting my last year of undergrad and continued painting up until now. I worked for a while throughout covid, doing my first online solo with Thierry Goldberg Gallery a few months after graduation, and was hopping group show to group show throughout 2021. Currently, I am creating a new body of work for my first in-person upcoming solo in June at Sow & Tailor Los Angeles.

2) You’re interested in relationships between people and their environments. Can you help our readers understand better the themes of your works?

Yes! It really started thinking about people and the different experiences that they go through, as well as the various places and people we engage with. This was inspired partially by two things really, one from my own experiences and the other from doing nonprofit work with individuals in need or transitional housing shelters. For my family we were always very close and focused on simply just surviving and taking the negative aspects of what we had gone through and trying to grow from them. I always had circling in my mind those encounters with others that once were in our situation or worse that we had given back to. It always touched me to feel that exchange of helping one another even when you had nothing, just that feeling of community between people. Looking at old photographs made me like most people very nostalgic. In general, I fixated on how we navigated the various obstacles that came our way, and how people in general all do. It made me think about the nature of being human and how our stories are all so unique, how different everyone perceives their experiences, and how the individuals’ journey could make or break them.

3) What’s your favourite medium and why?

My favorite medium is Oil paint, and its primarily what I use aside from acrylic paint, oil pastel, or pencil. I didn’t know oil paint existed until my first year of undergrad and I remember just being totally frustrated with it. Like it was impossible and honestly kind of expensive, messy, poisonous…. I was like… this is the worst. I think when I started really learning more about artists that manipulated its physicality in different ways, I became very determined to kind of stick with it. After a while the medium became bittersweet. Sometimes I step back because I struggle making the paint do what I want it to, and I find I enjoy a lot of the “mistakes”. I used to be very tight in my painting and to some extent I still am, I love tedious details! But— I found that freedom a lot of artists I looked up to talked about with making art, in oil painting. I think for a while I wanted it to be easy, something I could “master”. I think I like finding it uncomfortable, and I like not knowing sometimes what will happen. Its’ given me a very unpredictable attitude about making art that I love experiencing.

4) Do you have any routines when you start working on a new piece?

I love blasting some good music or a tv show I enjoy. I always have different drinks around the studio to chug while I work long hours: something warm, something cold, and some water (I end up accidentally dipping my paint brush into one of these sometimes and it is very sad haha). I organize my references or tape them to the wall or canvas, and then I mix up some random color to get started. I decide if I hate it or love it and then go from there.

5) Any artistic influences?

I love, love Noah Davis, Cecily Brown, Christina Quarles, and Francis Bacon. I love a lot of artists that have a very transformative element to their figures, almost like they are in constant flux. I think those artists also have this headspace feeling to their work that I admire and hope to evoke in mine as well. I love Sarah Lucas too. Specifically, her soft sculpture works.

6) Do you think art is important to society nowadays?

Of course, it is. I think most human beings in general when they put aside the everyday worries that are very black and white, things that are very practical in the world… they choose some form of art. I think especially in a society like ours, where there’s this never-ending search to be satisfied, this kind of hoarding consumption of “things”, when you find some people have everything they ever dreamed of and could still feel empty.. art serves as a kind of open-ended solution. Its healing, unpredictable, beautiful, ugly, confusing, joyous, but could also be very political and a powerful tool for those who feel their voice is suppressed or minimalized.

7) What has really helped your career so far?

What really has helped my career and just kept me motivated are my loved ones and pacing myself. I have some days like most artists where I feel doubtful about my work, but I go into the studio and just say to myself “this is for me”. I believe that if I hold the love I put into the people that matter most to me close, have faith in myself, and keep the love I have for my practice close to me as well, others will believe in the work too. I also have a few mentors that are collectors, art advisors, or gallery directors that have come my way and taught me so much as well as offered me so much support. Their advice as well as utilizing my social media platform has helped me make connections and engage with the art world more.

8) Any long term goals you would like to achieve? What would be success for you?

Success for me is being able to always find a language in art, to find more mediums that challenge me and to inspire others to search for a form of art that encourages them to want that as well. I would love to eventually have the means to help anyone of all ages that do not have access to art engage with it more frequently, whether it be gallery or museum trips, or just providing a safe space for them to work with and create.

9) What suggestions would you give to other young artists?

Utilize your social media, you never know who could become intrigued or inspired by what you post or create. Also, find a community. Surround yourself with people who inspire you or are equally as driven to create.