Brendan Fernandes is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. His practice addresses issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. Constantly seeking to create new spaces and forms of agency, Fernandes’ work often takes on hybrid forms: part ballet, part queer dance party, part political protest always rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity.
Fernandes (b.1979, Nairobi, Kenya) attended York University for his Bachelor’s (Hons.) and is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007). He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a Robert Rauschenberg Residency Fellowship (2014), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), an Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant (2019), and most recently, the Platform Award (2024). In 2024, he was also honored with the Creative Voice Award by Arts Alliance Illinois. His work has been presented at prestigious venues such as the 2019 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), Canada; among many others. Fernandes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University. In 2024, Fernandes debuted Build up the House for Chicago’s ART on THE MART, which traveled to Times Square Arts’ Midnight Moments. Recent and upcoming projects include performances and solo presentations at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; the Fabric Workshop and Museum. Philadelphia, PA; Prospect.6, New Orleans, LA; the Ford Foundation, New York, NY; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Fernandes recently debuted a major new commission and solo exhibition In the Round at the Driehaus Museum, Chicago, IL. Fernandes’s work will be featured in the 2026 Toronto Biennial, and will present a solo exhibition at moniquemeloche in September of 2026.
Public collections include the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK, Canada; Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL; Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, QC; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA; The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection of Abstract Art, San Francisco, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA; and the Wedge Collection, Toronto, ON, Canda. Fernandes currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.