Bryan Fernandez - Las Caras de mi Gente

Las Caras de mi Gente, which translates to 'the faces of my people', draws on Bryan Fernandez’ experiences as a first and second generation Dominican American artist living NY. Bryan’s practice focuses on the daily life of the Afro-Caribbean community in Upper Manhattan and attempts to create a visual record of its ongoing history today and in the future to come. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bryan had the opportunity to examine his community in Washington Heights and specifically the Dominican people that call this neighborhood in Upper Manhattan home. His work captures moments of their ordinary life as a way to document the community and its culture, to keep a record, and to visualise and archive its history.

Questions of representation are fundamental to Bryan's practice, as he looks to give his people a depiction and show a narrative that is often overlooked and underrepresented in popular culture and the mainstream media. Some of the themes frequently encountered in his imagery are the effects of colonisation, migration, race, gentrification, culture, and community identity.  The pieces range from small works on paper to large canvases featuring vibrant colors and patterns that are reflective or reminiscent of those found in the Dominican Republic. To capture the everyday moments he is interested in, Bryan works predominantly with mixed media assemblage. This body of work features some of his first explorations of the medium.

The most versatile pieces of the show, El Campeon and  Untitled Portrait, were made using a wide variety of media such as canvas, pumice, paste, embroidery thread, decorative paper and fabric among other. Much of the incorporated material comes from the artist’s own environment — the aluminium foil, fabrics, shoelaces, and even hairnets. These materials, easily encountered everywhere, create an imaginary bridge that connects the Dominican Republic, the island with the carnival that occurs every February and the Afro Caribbean religion of Santeria, with New York, where many of the members of the artist's community try to find ways to stay financially stable when first entering the United States.