Dedicated to Preserving the Art and Legacy of Conceptual Artist Fernando Garcia

This blog is dedicated to preserving the life and art legacy of conceptual artist Fernando Garcia who died in 1988. There were so many artists lost during this terrible time from the AIDS virus. As a result of his untimely death, many of his artworks are held in private collections with very few pieces every coming to market and Fernando seems to have become forgotten. We can't let this happen as Fernando is the most influential Cuban- American conceptual artist of the 70s and 80s. He paved the way for other artists with large displays of conceptual art in public places, not to mention his performance art work with the " NADA" group (conceptual performance artists) which created original impromptu conceptual and performance art in public places like train stations, fronts of restaurants etc.
Since 2006, the project has been collecting photographs of Fernando's artwork held in private collections and documenting his two decade career as an artist and want to document every work of art produced in his lifetime. Please help us and send stories and photographs of Fernando's work for the Project so we can preserve the his memory and his art legacy.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Babara Young's Talks about Fernando Garcia's "On the Line" Exhibition


 (Reposted from April 9th, 2006)
Fernando’s On the Line Exhibition: Commentary by Barbara Young

There were two sites for this exhibition. One body of work was installed at the Coral Gables Branch Library of the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The other at the Tennesse Williams Theaters and Arts Center in Key West. (He also exhibited at the old Main Library of the MDPLS, the new Main Library, in the MDPLS Artmobile, the West Dade Regional Library, The Coral Reef Branch Library of the MDPLS and many of the slides are from these projects). The photo was made by Wayne Powell, at that time the MDPLS audio visual librarian. He is now in charge of the library system’s bookmobile program. In addition to the photo, he made a video tape (in the library Vasari collection) of Fernando at that time and of course, became a good friend. He was very involved with the on-the-line project. His number is 305-480-1729. I went down to Key West for the opening of that space with Fernando’s mother and stayed at Sally Lewis’ house (maybe the southern most house in Key West) and again, Sally had become a great friend. And we all loved Fernando’s mother. She was a sweet, beautiful woman who made a marvelous flan. And she and an aunt that FG was very close to died not long before FG. the aunt in an accident and his mom, I think was ill. Anyway, I remember a wonderful party, great food. In Miami, at the Gables library again, wonderful exhibition and reception. The exhibition had to do with the line between the keys and Miami, the idea of bay side and ocean side. The tape was a kind of emotionally “on-the-Line” about something that had happened in FG’s life, a relationship it seemed like. There were lots of drawings. One of them he did with me involved the phone, pre-cell phone times remember, so it was an on the line exchange of information that became visual. Again, math was the key to the visual work. He was measuring time and distance.
Please talk with Wayne. He will remember the exhibiiton, and the tape he made. And he will recall going out with FG. Outings with him were always great. He knew the most amazing places to go. There was a funny little, really little, bar on 27th avenue, I think that he called it a biker bar, but it would have had to have been for tiny bikers. There was a a juke box and beer and dancing which he loved. Probably no air conditioning or maybe it was just that we danced so much, that sweaty seems like a part of it. They also had beer cans with pebbles in them to shake as you dance. There was another old bar on 8th street that had been there for years that was great, I think that the owner and her daughter sang, a very neighborhood sort of place. There was a great little market/restuarant, also on 8th street, that you could feed a family of 12 for $5.00 that he discovered. And on South Beach, before all the development…I think that the old dog track was still there, this was in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a place called the Coldest Beer that was one of his finds just a little open window with icy, icy beers.
He knew so many people, lots of really wonderful characters. And definitely some of the rich and famous. At one time, Leo Castilli in New York had given him money to have a broken or sprained arm fixed..he worked at the gallery one when he was in the City, I think. One time he borrowed a man’s shirt that I had that an artist in California had painted to go on a date or to a party with Bette Midler when she was performing here. He was almost impossible to say no to. You always felt, no matter how complicated his projects might sound, that this will be so much fun and so exciting to do.
Definitely he had times that things were not going so well, times that he was really down. Once he gave me a little paper with some words that may have been attributed to Gorky. Roughly it said something about when you’r mad, draw; when you’r depressed, draw; when you’r happy , draw.
I don’t think I saw any visuals in your sides for the project that he did at the Center for Fine Arts, now Miami Art Museum, with Don Cherry, the Jazz musician. Mary Luft was involed with that, too.
Please do credit Wayne on photo and talk with him to if you can.
hope that this helps some.
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