"There's this push and pull between feeling unease and discomfort, the nature of the spaces, and why they feel uncomfortable. But there is also tenderness and warmth, people adapting to these spaces and finding ways to make them comfortable."
"almost a state of urgency, like [if the figures] close their eyes they feel like the walls are compressing them and they want to escape."
Veronica Fernandez creates paintings that juxtapose peaceful scenes—community gatherings and children playing—with an underlying sense of foreboding and unease. Her solo show "Prey" features a significant shift toward small-scale canvases, prompted by her move from a large Downtown Los Angeles studio to a compact townhouse in La Habra. This practical constraint mirrors the confined spaces, both physical and psychological, depicted in her work. The exhibition title derives from her poem "I Wanna Fly," which explores claustrophobia and survival. Fernandez's artistic vision stems from her childhood experiences of homelessness, shelters, and transitional housing in difficult neighborhoods. Her work captures the tension between discomfort and the human capacity to find warmth and adapt to challenging environments.
#contemporary-painting #psychological-tension #claustrophobia-and-confinement #homelessness-and-displacement #small-scale-canvases
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