Oil Paintings of Ana Teresa Fernandez

Ana Teresa Fernández is a highly regarded contemporary Mexican-American artist whose work, including her large-scale oil paintings, uses hyperrealism to confront complex socio-political issues. Her paintings are deeply connected to her performance and social justice actions, often serving as a permanent documentation of a temporary, physically intense, or politically charged event.

Style and Subject Matter of Her Oil Paintings

1. Hyperrealism and the Body

Fernández's oil paintings are known for their hyperrealist technique, which lends a powerful, almost unsettling verisimilitude to the scenes. Her subjects are often based on photographic documentation of her own performances, ensuring that the painted image—no matter how surreal the scenario—is rooted in something that "really happened."

2. Themes of Feminism and Labor

A significant portion of her oil paintings, particularly from her earlier work, addresses gender politics and the societal expectations placed on women.

• "Daily Duties" Series: In this series (sometimes referred to as Telaraña or Pressing Matters), the paintings depict women, often Fernández herself, performing menial household tasks like mopping, sweeping, or ironing.

• The Provocative Twist: The women are usually dressed in a strapless black cocktail dress and stiletto heels while their faces are often obscured or absent. This juxtaposition critiques the contradictory expectations of femininity: a woman is expected to be alluring and sensual (the black dress) yet also diligently perform undervalued, de-skilled domestic labor.

3. Politics of the Border and Absence

Fernández uses her paintings to explore the fragility of borders and to address issues of immigration, human rights, and political injustice, which she refers to as "Magical Non-Fiction."

• Borrando La Frontera (Erasing the Border) (2011): This project, which was a public art performance, video, and painting series, epitomizes her approach. The paintings document her action of painting the border wall sky blue to make it blend with the background, creating the illusion of its temporary "erasure" and advocating for the unity of people "under the same sky."

• Erasure (2014-2016): This series is a reaction to the 2014 disappearance of 43 male students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. Her related oil paintings depict fragments of a body—a mouth, arms, or the back of a head—on a flat black background. These images, often documentation of a performance where she painted her own body black, symbolize the absence, injustice, and censorship surrounding the disappearance of the young men.

In essence, Ana Teresa Fernández's oil paintings are a powerful artistic record, converting her fleeting acts of social commentary into durable, meticulously crafted canvases that force viewers to confront difficult realities.