BRENDAN FERNANDES

Brendan Fernandes (b.1979, Nairobi, Kenya) attended York University for his bachelor's with honors (2002), received an MFA from The University of Western Ontario (2005), and is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007). Fernandes is an internationally recognized artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Based in Chicago, the artist’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Committed to creating new spaces and new forms of agency, Fernandes’ projects take on hybrid forms: part Ballet, part queer dance party, part protest . . . to foster collaboration and solidarity through actions of generosity and kindness. Fernandes is a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship. In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, and is the recipient of a prestigious Canada Council New Chapters grant (2017), the Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019), and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020). Fernandes’ projects have shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); Museum of Modern Art (New York); The Getty Museum (Los Angeles); National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) among many others. In his home city of Chicago he has exhibited solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, The Graham Foundation and DePaul Art Museum. He is Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Art Theory and Practice and is represented by Chicago’s Monique Meloche Gallery. Recent projects include performances and presentations at the Munch Museum, Oslo; The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia; The Philip Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, and a commission by The DR Vocal Ensemble, Copenhagen. In 2024, Fernandes will contribute sculptures and performances to exhibitions at MCA Denver, CO; The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; and ART on THE MART, Chicago, IL.