Walter Fernández
Born in Puerto Rico, 1980 | Lives and works in San Juan, PR.
Education
B.A Communications, Visual Art 2003
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. San Juan, P.R.
Studies on Human Figure, 2003
Escuela Altos de Chavón, La Romana, D.R.
Summer Studies on Drawing and Painting, 2001 Parsons School of Design, NY, N.Y.
Description
As the co-founder and band member of the legendary punk band Los Lácteos, Walter began to have a political conscience and interest on investigating social illnesses. In 2003 he presented collaborative works for the community and workshops for artists as the artist collective W & N. The next year he created the online publication Repuesto, blog and it became a guide for culture and the underground art scene in San Juan.
His paintings in large format, drawings and prints, deal the lack of awareness towards nature and the common good. His practice is linked to agriculture, specially to tobacco, a flourished industry with great economic impact in Puerto Rico in the 1920s. After the disaster of hurricane Maria in 2017, alongside Antonio Castro Barreto (farmer and art collector) and Francisco Javier Castro (farmer), they created El Club Del Turro as an economic and sustainable response to that crisis. The trio became the only ones right now growing and producing cigars 100% made in the Island. Walter also was a member of PoF (Pounds of Flesh) a collective of artists in Old San Juan who constantly underwent questioning and protesting against generalized policies of iniquity, abuse of justice, policies of exclusion, inequality and colonialism.
Today he is the cofounder of Rip, an artist collective in San Juan.
Solo Shows
2020- Sueños de un New Porto Rico. Ateneo Puertorriqueño. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2018- Sobre la importancia de perderlo todo. Km 0.2, Santurce, Puerto Rico.
2013- #dandoleconelbichoalbajo. Área: lugar de proyectos. Caguas, PR.
Group Shows (selection)
2018-
El tributo a El Santo ‘José Luis Vargas’- Omar Velázquez , El Local de Santurce.
2bléo. La Respuesta. Santurce, Puerto Rico.
2017- Emojis, Lies, Instagram Muses, and Headline News. Latino Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
2016- La Víspera del Hambre Km 0.2 in Santurce, PR.
2011-
Neo Constructivismo Caribeño Ruso Art Lab Santurce, PR
Chiquitolina. La 15, Santurce, PR.
AWARDS
2004- Mejor Exhibición Prima Obra La Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte (AICA) con sede en París y afiliada a la UNESCO Capitulo de Puerto Rico 9 de febrero de 2006.