OPN Standards
A new studio in the Phoenix Melrose District 9/2024
OPN Standards
626 W Indian School Rd. Suite B
Phoenix, Arizona 85013
(Please do not send mail to this address)
For now you can visit the space and my art by appointment.
info@faustofernandez.com
I moved into a new, larger, air-conditioned art studio located in the Melrose District in Phoenix. I've been working hard to settle in and want to share these pictures. My objective is to create a new art space in Phoenix that people can visit, an artist-run space for our community, a place for art.
I will have an opening soon.
The name OPN Standards (Open Standards) was inspired by the time I was a judge at The Heard Museum. There is a category where artists must explain why the artwork does not meet the established standards. The artworks that didn't fit any other categories.
Ever since, my friend Bill and I who were judges would refer to anything that is different, strange, or sometimes funny as Open Standards. I thought it would be fitting of a name as we both laughed at calling my new studio OPN Standards.
The description of open standards is also parallel in meaning between my concept and technology. In the tech world, Open Strandards are rules or specifications that are available to the public to use, access, and share. They are developed through a collaborative process and are often open to participation.
City of Tempe Public Art Portable Works Collection 2024
The City of Tempe selected my monoprint Abigail 2020 into the City of Tempe Public Art Portable Works Collection.
The collection focuses on beautifying the built environment by bringing artwork by artists currently living in Maricopa County to city-operated facilities where the public is also able to enjoy it.
Abigail,Original serigraph with 4 hand made stencils, not a reproduction. Printed by the artist at XICO Inc - Latin & Native American Arts Organization on acid-free Legion Stonehenge Paper. 22 x 30, 2020
City Office of Arts and Culture Artist to Work Grantees 2023
The Artists to Work Program supports the creation and presentation of original, new or in-process artistic work by practicing Phoenix artists.
For this first round, they received over 150 applications for the two-step application process. Only 49 applicants moved to the second step, and only 20 were recommended funding. The awarded artists will complete a public presentation inside city of Phoenix boundaries that primarily benefits Phoenix residents.
Commitment to Artistic Growth.
I completed a couple of artist residencies. The Art Farm Iowa Residency resulted in my first performance work that was published in the statewide Iowa Magazine. The Camino Al Arte Residency in Mexico resulted in a community engagement project and a presentation. This grant was also fundamental in the production of a new series using a laser cutter that contemplate the commitment it takes for many border residents to cross the border. One of these paintings was selected for the permanent collection at The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. The painting also received the juror’s award at the Mesa Contemporary Art Museum group show “Visual Syntax”.
McNay Art Museum New Collection Acquisition 2023
Announcing the McNay Art Museum new collection acquisition, “Burden Narratives While Stuck in Traffic in Pursuit of an Obligation at the Port of Entry” by Fausto Fernandez (@faustoartist).
Listen, Texas Public Radio: Fronteras: ‘Latinx art is American Art’ — A walkthrough of Latino artworks on display at the McNay Art Museum
Fernandez is a mixed-media collage artist whose works include a variety of paintings, public art, and community engagement projects, through which he explores the relationship of nature and technology as they intersect with human behavior.
The artist renders an image of cars in traffic at the border into an abstracted pattern, layering the design over a multi-colored canvas ground that evokes the visual texture of rusted metal. Through the element of repetition, the work contemplates the commitment it takes for border residents to cross the border regularly, their logistical planning, and the psychological strain one experiences stuck in traffic.
Fernandez’s work was selected by popular vote at Collecting Texas, a new acquisition initiative by the McNay to collect works by artists from around the state of Texas. #McNayArtMuseum
Burden Narratives While Stuck In Traffic In Pursuit Of An Obligation At The Port Of Entry
42 laser cut watercolor paper painted over with acrylic, spray paint, collage, watercolor, resin, and glued over canvas, framed in black.
79 x 101
2023
Sky harbor Airport Collection Acquisition
Diversity in the Desert: Expanding the Airport’s Art Collection
As Phoenix Sky Harbor grows, so does its vast art collection. It all began in 1962 with one massive 75-foot-wide mural at Terminal 2 and the Airport’s collection has continued growing ever since. The designs of Terminals 3 and 4 incorporated spaces for art with large-scale paintings and sculptures as well as architecturally integrated works.
The Phoenix Airport Museum began in 1988 to enhance the guest experience by producing exhibitions throughout Phoenix Sky Harbor and maintaining the ever-increasing art collection. Today, the Museum has more than 1,000 pieces in all mediums, styles and sizes. Like all museums, only a fraction of the collection is on display at any one time.
On view for the first time are 41 newly acquired artworks in a wide variety of approaches and techniques ranging from colorful abstracts to realistic portraiture to Southwest themes. These new additions to the Airport's collection were purchased through the city of Phoenix’s Percent for Art Program.
Contemporary Arizona artists created art in various mediums using traditional and unconventional materials including cactus spines, bones, glass and metal. Enjoy these paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and fiber works showcasing Arizona’s rich art and culture representing Diversity in the Desert.
The Remnant Left of A Neutron Star
On the left in the photograph
Collage, acrylic, spray paint, and oil sticks on canvas
62 x 96
2020
Collection of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Museum
I did a series of collages on canvas with designs made of architectural blueprint paper and wallpaper strips cut with precision and applied meticulously onto the canvas. My training in graphic design in part influenced them; I was applying techniques I learned in college as a graphic designer the way we did before we created designs digitally.
On this painting I decided that my work needed to develop to reveal those ideas I felt uncomfortable creating. I needed to take some risks into allowing the materials to flow without precision and planning. I allowed the paper to overlap and the paint to drip. I started applying gestural marks into my paintings as forms of symbolic expression. Scribbling as the foundation of our artistic development, the more we do scribble the more they become unique to us by their characteristics, like a signature. I wanted to see how my old work would look if I allowed it to transform.
I applied ideas from the abstract expressionist by applying dynamic paint splatters, leaving more of the final outcome to chance, accidents, and the element of surprise adding unique characteristics to the each painting.
Published Article of ArtFarmIowa at IA Magazine
My art residency performance art piece at @artfarmiowa was published at #aimagazine in this 7 page article about the farm and @steve_hanson3 and family endeavor to help and promote artists. My photo is a full page ❤️
https://iapublication.com/art-takes-root/
Art Takes Root
A new attraction combines art and agriculture to cultivate creativity among visitors and locals alike
"Art Farm Iowa artist-in-residence Fausto Fernandez was so inspired by the landscape that he dragged a canvas across the ground like a tiller. The subtle stained-grass results are shown below"
Spent a few days with Merle, Steve's dad, at their farm dragging this canvas with his tractor and three wheeler. We were having fun primarily, and it became an interesting site specific piece to tell their story. Happy is getting attention.
Thank you Steve and Art Farm Iowa.
The Art Farm Iowa Residency resulted in my first performance work that was published in the statewide Iowa Magazine.
"ia magazine is a statewide publication that shares stories from around our beautiful state.
ia is our love letter to Iowa, covering arts and culture, home and garden, food and dining and destinations".
@dsmmagazine
#iowamagazine
#iowaart
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico “Camino al Arte” Artist in Residence October 14- November 14 2023
Nuestro primer artista residente es Fausto Fernández, quien vive en Phoenix, Arizona. Fausto es un artista de collage y técnica mixta cuyas creaciones también incluyen arte público y proyectos de participación comunitaria. Mediante el uso de técnicas tradicionales, fotografías y arte encontrado, Fausto crea composiciones complejas que sirven como metáforas de la interacción y el comportamiento humanos. Sus ideas se desarrollan a partir del cuestionamiento de su crianza en la frontera México - Estados Unidos, y se inspiran en diversas comunidades y sociedades. Las obras a menudo se inspiran en las matemáticas, la tecnología, la preservación cultural y la mitología.
El trabajo de Fausto se ha exhibido en el Centro George Gustav Heye del Smithsonian en Nueva York; el Centro Cultural Gate en San Pedro, California; Museo de Arte McNay en San Antonio; Museo Akron en Ohio; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Mesa en Arizona; Centro Tempe para las Artes en Arizona; y Galería de Arte de Ontario en Toronto, Canadá.
Fernández nació en El Paso, Texas y creció en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México.