Things Left Unsaid: Bria Fernandes

Hi everyone and welcome back to the Art-O-Log. I'm so excited to be coming back after a week-long break. It has been a crazy fortnight in my life. The entirety of last week was spent prepping for the launch of Maison Milieu, a pop-up gallery that I run with my best friend, lauren McNaughton. It was so much fun. We had such a great turnout and we're so excited to produce more events in the future. You can follow our Instagram at MaisonMilieuGallery.

I've also had a pretty crazy week for media. I have been in the newspaper twice and I've been on the news as of today, so that was a lot of fun and I think it'll bring a lot of new listeners for today's episode. Today I'm speaking with Bria Fernandez, a Winnipeg-based painter who has a show opening tonight at Gallery 1CO3 called the Things Left Unsaid. Bria is a fantastic figurative painter and someone I've been wanting to get on the podcast for a while, so I'm really thankful that she was able to sit down and talk with me during such a busy period in her career.

Bria Fernandez is a Canadian-born figurative painter whose work explores the social, cultural and personal experiences of being a Black woman. Her art delves into themes of identity, vulnerability and belonging, using silence, omission and exclusion as tools to depict oppression and introspection. Through symbolic imagery and passive body postures, she captures moments of self-reflection, focusing on marginalized communities' unseen emotions and unspoken truths. Working primarily with oil, paint and acrylics, bria incorporates symbolic objects and animals that reflect her personal and cultural narratives. Her intricate work create emotionally resonant spaces, inviting viewers to share these moments of introspection and fostering a dialogue about identity, anxiety and displacement. Born in Ottawa, ontario, bria now resides in Winnipeg, manitoba. She completed her BFA at Alberta University of the Arts and, like I said, she has a show opening tonight at Gallery 1CO3, and I'm really excited to not only see the show but speak to Bria right before the show opens. So, without further ado, bria, welcome to the Art-O-Log. How would you describe your practice?

My work is about race and anxiety and identity. Mainly, I explore belonging, vulnerability and drawing from lived experiences like being a Black person just living in the world, when I combine abstract elements to my painting as well as figurative. I also do murals and I started recently adding in parts of my murals into my painting, which has made it a lot of fun, Because the graphic or illustrative parts that I would never normally do in my painting so like symbolic objects and animals that might be in a mural would be now added in my paintings. Can you tell me?

some of your earliest memories of art Earliest memories is probably. I got a job painting kids' bedrooms and it was just whatever they wanted. It was really short and I remember being really slow at painting. At that time I was always lagging behind all the other artists who had done their wall and I was just like guys, I need more time. That's my earliest memory of painting.

Can you?

tell me a bit about who inspires your work. So friends, close friends, who are artists like my friend Dubin not sure if you know his work, but he's a really good painter and then artists like Sasha Gordon and then Neo I don't know if I'm pronouncing this like Rosh R-A-U-C-H. I love their work. And then other artists like Devin Price and Kyle Dunn. They're doing they just do a lot of really interesting figuratives. Their figures are awesome and then like some of their backgrounds because I also put a lot of effort into figuring out my backgrounds in my painting. It's not just like ever filler and all their work have like really interesting backgrounds.

What made you decide to pursue painting professionally?

Maybe when I switched over to oil paints, I used to do acrylic and then my professor at the U of M was like, bria, you should try oil paints. And then I was coached ever since I did them. Anyway, I did a mural for the first time in Winnipeg and then I was like, oh, people think my work is okay, I should keep doing more.

Can we talk a little bit more about your experience in education and how that laid the foundation for your work today?

Yeah. So I went to school at the U of M for a few years and then switched to AU Arts there in Calgary and it definitely played a part in wanting to continue what I was doing, especially in Calgary. The school was okay but I was able to create work and there were some classes where they allowed me to just focus on one painting a semester, which is really nice because usually they're like paint 10 paintings in two days and you're like, oh, that's not possible at all. But I remember one of my professors let me paint one work and it was just really nice because I had time to sit with the painting and take breaks and bag. So they were letting me just do my practice and create more of the work that I wanted to create. So it was just that was a good part.

The feedback critiques weren't always the best. I feel like all schools are like that potentially. And then just making other artists friends are always nice. It's just for having an actual critique and giving you their honest opinion and stuff, the odd teacher being close to you, bouncing ideas off of them and stuff.

How do you typically begin a new piece? What's your thought process when you sit down in front of a canvas?

So I'm not usually the type of painter to be like I'm going to go into my studio and paint for fun. I usually need some sort of deadline to be like paper it this is pushing you to make a piece. So usually I'll have the figures figured out and I sketch it out with how I want them positioned. And then I ask a photographer, or sometimes I just take pictures of either myself or I use my mom sometimes for my pieces and I get the poses that I want and then I would project that onto a canvas just to help scale and save time, because before I would not use a projector and I would take days figuring out scale or just having the eraser marks. That was really frustrating. And then usually I have also the background figure out because that's really important to me. So yeah, I project that all, do underpainting or washes with acrylic or sometimes oil, and then I'll start on the painting process and before I remember I would only have the figures figured out and it would take me like days to figure out the background and that would stress me out so much, like in my show.

There's a few older paintings where I had the figures written out and the back one is just like oh, I need like a few weeks to get this in order, because I always want the background to interact with the figures or be interesting or just have a lot of detail. I don't want to ever fill her. A professor told me that she's like never just fill your background with a color and be like that's good and that's stuff for me. So I just try to have everything figured out digitally drawn. I use my iPad a lot and then project it onto the canvas and then I start my process and then for murals it's kind of the same idea Draw it all digitally and then I would project it onto a wall.

With your murals, do you tend to focus on similar subjects that you would in your painting, or is it entirely different?

My newest painting there's like a figure that's drawn kind of like a comic book style with the cross-satching that I did. That's kind of the stuff I would focus on in my murals. And I find my murals before would be a lot more fun to design because I would never really focus on meaning. I'd always just be like, oh, what can I add here? Can I add something here? Or what can I what? What? Just weird stuff, little colorful stuff. So I'd always have the two separated. But now that I've joined the two styles together, there's definitely elements that you'll see a little bit in my oil paintings and my murals, but they're different, but the same.

You have a new show opening at Gallery 1CO3 in Winnipeg. Can you tell me a bit about Things Left Unsaid?

Yeah, so it's just like works that I've made like over the years. They show in everywhere except for Winnipeg. So this is my first solo show in my hometown, which is cool. Again, focuses on identity. There's one new piece I made for the show, which is really cool. It's a pivotal piece. It's like a piece that's pushing me into the direction that I want to go in my paintings, which is cool. I always feel like I have like that one piece that's like, yes, that's what I want. It's looking more of what I want. So the figures are me, but they're not me, because I don't like looking at myself in paintings. So I change the features but it's all me. There's some of my family in there. Yeah, just all about introspection and identity and anxieties and just navigating the world with these issues that we sometimes have or deal with and just even reflecting on those moments or thoughts or just like you're in the moment of getting dressed and you have this thought and you still got to continue the motion.

And what piece is that for people going to see the show today?

When you walk in you'll see it from the back wall, but it's called Step Aside Slash and it's the biggest piece there.

Your show has a response provided by Akeni Maduka, who's another fantastic Winnipeg artist whose work I really love and admire. What was this collaboration process like between you two?

for like shipping a painting out. How do I ship a painting? How do I wrap it properly so it doesn't get damaged? So it was like really easy to just ask her. And also she was like the first person I thought of when Jennifer Gibson, who's a curator of the show, was asking, like who do you want to like have writing essay on it? And it was like I was like I can't, it should be perfect.

And she said yes, and then everything went to plan how does winnipeg serve as grounds for inspiration in your work?

winnipeg is just like a really small town. I don't know if this is answering the question fully, but the art scene is so small. Everyone knows everyone. It's just they're just honestly a good city to meet other artists and help with any question channel about your own art. There's a lot of emerging artists in the lily peg and then, since everyone knows everyone, there's lots of opportunities to meet someone else. Meet a curator. That like that's how I met jennifer is for going. Went to laura lewis's show. That was at gallery like 1c03 and then someone came up to me and was like oh, you're bria and I'm like I know it's not really answering your question, but like no, I love that.

Actually, that's a fantastic answer. I think it's just about the Winnipeg art world. I was more getting towards. Does it impact your work at all?

Yeah, no that's why I was like, how do I answer this? Because it doesn't really, it doesn't really influence my work, because I never really showed here, besides recently at the wag and then now, oh, and I guess that take home downtown there was like that one show, but yeah, I never, it never really influenced the way I paint. But like the obscene of people here like such are so like close-knit everybody, so that's like a plus being an artist.

Actually I would love for you to speak to that, that connection that you made at Laura Lewis's show, because I think that is so Winnipeg, to meet someone at a show and then potentially have that network spring off from there, and so fantastic that you got to speak to Jennifer there and get the solo show. Can you tell me a bit about the planning behind the solo show?

so the planning that went behind, like getting ready for the show and stuff. Well, first of all, emerging artists who want shows always go to other artists, gallery openings and show. Meet other artists as much as you can, just because there'll always be someone you can talk to and they'll find out about your work and you'll make friends, connection. That's what you need as an emerging artist. You need a lot of art friends. I know it can be scary, because a lot of us are like introverted and shy, but it's something that I feel like is really important just being comfortable talking to people and just being friendly and making friends. And then something can happen. You'll meet someone and you'll be like, oh, like I'm putting on a show, do you want to join? Or I know someone who knows this person, and that's usually what's been happening a lot, actually, and the whole process has just been, yeah, lots of emails, lots of back and forth with the plan of who we want for what.

How do you want the layout of the show? We wanted an artist talk as well, so we're trying to plan for that. Who's going to speak at the artist talk? Is just going to be me, am I just going to talk away work, or is there going to be like more of a conversation between me and someone else? It's a lot of work to put on a solo show, because I did shows where it's group shows and all I do is send my work over and then they deal with the rest. This is like the first time I did our show in person and I'm so tired. But yeah, just put yourself out there and meet people and say that you can start, or, if someone wants to get a show or have a potential of meeting someone, what was the timeline like? So when was Laura's show?

Whoa, it was in September 2024?. Yeah, the in-between was in September 2024.

Okay, that makes sense. Okay. So, yeah, I didn't meet Jennifer at Laura's show, but I met someone who knew Jennifer before, so I met them at the show. And then Jennifer reached out in February of this no, was it this year? Maybe, maybe this year. So then I had the year to plan out if I wanted all new works, so if I wanted some of my older works to come in. Because of the timeline, because you also got to realize, for a solo show, how long does it take you to paint one painting? So you need to tell them, oh, it takes, if it takes me like three to four months to create one painting, how many can you fit in in a year? So you got to kind of figure that out. So I first wanted three new works and then stuff came out from like other art, like I had other issues and projects I had to do. So I ended up, we ended up agreeing on one piece, because it takes me around four to five months to create one large work.

And then, yeah, I worked, painted throughout the whole summer and then here we are how have you found working as a painter professionally, compared to what you may have thought it might've been like when you were in painting school?

So, working as a painter, now I give it a seven out of 10 because there's years where it's super dry and you have nothing going on, no one's reaching out to you. You feel like, am I moving backwards? What's going on? And there's years like this year has been like really good for me for art. I've received too many emails and I've had to say no to a lot, and also I've received too many emails and I've had to say no to a lot, and also I've said yes to too many things and now I'm overwhelmed. But I feel like that's the thing that just with artists like there's like years where it's dry and years where it's really good and I feel like it can be good, but you need like a plan B.

I feel like like a bunch of us have two jobs. Unless you're like Takashi Murakami, he just is making work like crazy and he's totally fine, like unless you're that. But you need a few, a few jobs to to survive and be okay. Earlier before I was doing pretty well, I thought I I would never make it and also, like my friends dubam and akene were way ahead of me there, like akene was doing stuff with alicia keys and like dubam was having work all over the world and I was like back here and they're up there, so I thought I would never get up there. And Dubem said we're all moving at our own pace. You'll get there eventually. And like I guess I'm slowly catching up. Yeah, that's great advice.

I think that idea that we're all moving at our own pace and that we shouldn't compare ourselves is so important for artists. I think it's important for everyone generally, but especially for artists. I think it's important for everyone generally, but especially for artists. I think there's so much comparison that happens especially now with social media that can be particularly difficult to navigate. But that's great advice that Dabem gave you. It's really good. What have been some career highlights for you?

Probably when a gallery in New York asked me to show with them and I was like, whoa, you're asking me? And then they're like, yeah, and it was a group show. But that's when I was like, oh, people actually like my work. Or like when Akenne posted my work of her story once and someone from London saw it and reached out to me and being like, do you want to do a show in London? And I was like, whoa, whoa, that's pretty cool. And then I think I had to make a painting for her I can't remember and she ended up buying it, which is another cool thing. Yeah, that was probably a few of the highlights that were just like, wow, people like my stuff.

well, it's pretty cool, you know, yeah this may be putting a horse ahead of the cart right now, because you have a show opening today, but what do people have to look forward to after the show closes? What are you working?

on just some really colorful paintings that are weird and something. I feel like they're a lot different than some of the paintings or works that you see at WEG, or like they're just really colorful and weird. And the newest one is getting closer to what I want, which is super nice and satisfying, and you can come see me and see me being awkward, so that's cool. We can be awkward together, so it'll be fun.

I look forward to it. What advice would you give to emerging artists who are just starting their careers?

Say yes to everything If someone's like hey, do you want to do this short little, tiny mural that has no pay? And you're like, yes, because then you can meet other artists and make friends with those artists and then some sort of connection can be found and something can happen, and it's just say yes to everything but don't burn yourself out. I think that's good advice. Don't be scared to apply to open calls I could apply to especially if you're like a painter I'm just speaking on like painters. I don't know about ceramics or any other stuff but open calls, even if you don't get any like, it's still like good practice to have keep up with your cv, because that's really important.

They ask for that all the time and know the difference between an artist's bio and an artist's statement. You have to know the difference, because there's people who ask for the bio and a statement and two they're the same but they're different and do some research on how you can better your artist statement, because I feel like there are a lot of artist statements that like use too much art jargon. It's supposed to be something that people who don't know arts will understand your work. So if you use a bunch of art jargon and make it all fancy, then people who don't know art will be like what does that mean? So make it accessible for, yeah, non-artists what else? Just put yourself out there.

I know we're all shy and awkward, but like you kind of got to sell yourself being an artist. I'm shy and awkward and I have so many interviews and I'm like, so stressed, but like I got to do it because I suck at talking about my art but I need to better myself. So I'm saying yes to all these because it's a weakness that I have. Yeah, I hope that's good advice. It's excellent advice, thank you.

Bria, so much for your time today. I really appreciate you making the time before you show. This has been a great conversation, thank you. Yeah, no problem, thank you for having me.