In what ways might we reclaim and repurpose abandoned, underutilized, and/or vacant urban properties as inclusive and equitable spaces for community building, radical creativity, and social action? With this question as a guiding prompt, artist Andres L. Hernandez will explore the unique challenges and opportunities of creative and pedagogical practices located and developed in public, and discuss his upcoming project No Park, An Island/No Plaza, A Frontier: A Public Dialogue in Three Act(ion)s, an arts-based civic dialogue scheduled for Spring 2019 in Tucson, AZ.
Andres L. Hernandez is a Chicago-based artist, designer and educator who re-imagines the environments we inhabit, and explores the potential of spaces for public dialogue and social action. He is a 2018-2019 visiting artist with the University of Arizona School of Art as part of the VASE series Stop, Look, Listen: Visual Art and Social Justice, and was recently awarded the 2018 Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship by the Efroymson Family Fund.
Hernandez’ recent projects include Thrival Geographies (In My Mind I See A Line), a commissioned installation with artists Amanda Williams and Shani Crowe for the U.S. Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, and A Way, Away (Listen While I Say), a design-build commission with Amanda Williams for PXSTL, organized by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Hernandez is co-founder of the Revival Arts Collective, founder and director of the Urban Vacancy Research Institute, and member of the performance collective Dark Adaptive. He is an exhibition design team member for the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center, and serves as a creative consultant on a number of public projects. Hernandez received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and a Master of Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he is an Associate Professor.
The School of Art Visiting Artists and Scholars lecture series is made possible by the School of Art Advisory Board Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowment, the School of Art, the College of Fine Arts Dean’s Fund for Excellence, and the Center for Creative Photography and the National Endowment for the Arts.