About
Elegy to the Void, 2018
digital photography
Nicholas Fernandez (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY, whose work explores vulnerability, failure, and the peculiar pathetic beauty of the everyday. Drawing from their Cuban heritage and upbringing in Miami, FL, Fernandez creates works that merge personal and cultural histories with influences from camp, horror, cartoons, and late-20th-century pop culture. Working across sculpture and drawing, Fernandez employs found objects, faux materials, and hand-blended wax and oil mediums to craft pieces that critique class hierarchies while embracing humor and empathy. Their practice highlights the tension between earnestness and absurdity, inviting viewers to find beauty and meaning in the mundane. Through a process of bricolage and playful experimentation, Fernandez creates an aesthetic of romantic persistence, turning the overlooked and the strange into sites of intrigue and emotional resonance.