We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fernando Reyes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fernando below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Fernando with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My work ethic comes from my early childhood years from my parents. My dad was hardworking and provided a roof over our heads, food and bills. . My mother was a stay at home mom raising 6 children; three boys and three girls. During our summer school break we boys would work summer jobs in the fields picking grapes with our mom to help bring in much needed income for new school clothes for all of us kids. Once I was old enough I found part-time work and never again set foot in the fields.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I grew up in Fresno California and at an early age I knew I wanted to be an artist. In 1976 I moved to San Francisco with a work transfer for Bank of America. In 1991, I left a banking career to begin a new life as a self-taught artist. Art is a second career for me after spending 17 years in the banking industry. I moved to Chicago in 1993 to seek a formal art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago graduating with a Bachelors of Fine Art (BFA) in 1997. I returned to California living one year in Davis Ca, eventually moving back to the Bay Area in Oakland where I opened my art studio in the Oakland’s Jingletown Arts District in 1999. In 2020, I opened a second studio in the Sierra Foothills where I reside full-time.
My career has been varied throughout the years with a very strong portfolio influenced predominately by the human form (1998 – 2015). At the time, my influences from history were from old master drawings and paintings up to the Bay Area Figurative movement. I was taught to paint the figure in a representational style but I felt compelled to find my voice combining abstract and representational elements often depicting a single figure. Other works, however, through the juxtaposition and overlapping of multiple figures can appear very abstract. My most recent figurative paintings reflects a departure from the linear aspect in my earlier work, inviting figuration to move a step closer towards abstraction.
In 2014, my direction shifted profoundly after seeing the Matisse exhibition “The Cut-Outs” at MoMA. Reconsidering the painted figurative compositions I had spent my career refining, I began to explore handprinted paper cut-out collage. Just like Matisse, I found that composing with paper cut-outs was a completely different way of creating and one that opened new avenues for exploration. In the subsequent years, I have integrated paper cut-outs from my printmaking mono prints into my artistic practice. The idea of cutting and collaging mono prints took me through a creative journey expanding my artistic repertoire. My work is an abstracted reflection from a myriad of images that has captured my imagination for years from art movements like Mid-Century Modern Art and Abstract Expressionism; from artists like Alexander Calder, Ellsworth Kelly, Rex Ray, James Kennedy amongst others; and from childhood memories growing up during the 60’s.
In 2017 the curator from the Mexican Museum in San Francisco visited my abstract collage exhibition “Making The Cut”, at Mercury Twenty Gallery in Oakland. It was so well received that I was offered an exhibition at the museum. The curator asked to visit my studio where he could see more of my work. There he viewed early and current figurative and early landscape paintings. The exhibition at the Mexican Museum resulted in mounting a retrospective of my life work “An Artist’s Evolution 1991 – 2017” which opened January 2018. The highlight for me was having the honor of recognition for my achievements and to have publication interviews throughout the course of the year which included the cover art for CA Modern Magazine Fall Issue 2018 with a 5 page interview.
Moving forward I have acquired gallery representation at Pamela Walsh Gallery in Palo Alto and Bacchi Contemporary in Palm Springs. Currently, I’m showing in the de Young Open 2023 exhibition at The de Young Museum in San Francisco running through January 7, 2024.
My work can be found in the collections of Stanford University Medical Center, Alameda County Arts Collection, Norwest, Menlo Park, Sutter Cathedral Hills Hospital, George and Cynthia Miller Wellness Center, Tom of Finland Foundation, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in NY, as well as numerous private collections.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Confidence, Management, and Prior Business Experience
My art career started after a 17 year banking career. Making the decision to change careers in my late 30’s was not an easy one. Having confidence in myself, taking risks and guidance from role models and peers helped me achieve a successful art career.
As a former banker, I brought managing skills to my art business. This helped tremendously in organizing and managing my art business to be creative and productive.
As an artist you need to be able to ride the wave of uncertainty and success by keeping a balance in life and work. I remain positive for my artistic future by producing art work that is fresh, interesting and current. I work with galleries, art consultants, art advisors and I license my artwork. I’ve been in many solo exhibitions/group shows throughout the years.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Today, I split time between my studios in Oakland and the Sierra foothills, finding inspiration in the diversity of my surroundings.
Opening a second art studio in the Sierra Foothills has allowed me the expansion of growth and has influenced new work from country living. Also, maintaining my Jingletown art studio in Oakland provides me an exhibition space for Open Studio events, studio visits for collectors, art consultants and gallery directors.
Contact Info:
- Website: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freyesart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fernando.reyes.353/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freyesart/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/freyesart
Image Credits
For my Artist Photo “Image courtesy of i.becker” For my artwork “Image courtesy of Dana Davis”
