Apr 28 - Jun 11 | Reception May 4

HEB Gallery @ 204 S. Austin

Presented by Neiland Sammons II

Beginning April 28, Rockport Center for the Arts will host Confluence, an art exhibition featuring the abstract paintings and figurative/abstract mixed-media work of artist Fernando Andrade. Presented by Neiland Sammons II, the exhibition will be on display through June 11 in the H-E-B Gallery located on the upper level.

A members-only reception with the artist will take place Thursday, May 4, from 5–7 p.m., with Andrade also discussing his work and process in a gallery talk on Friday, May 5, at 12:30 p.m., which is free and open to the public. Both events will take place in the H-E-B Gallery.

Confluence brings together select works from the artist’s two series, Espacios and Suspended Thoughts. Espacios is a series of abstract paintings, improvised organic compositions that are colorful and dynamic, while Suspended Thoughts, his new, ongoing body of work, represents the struggles of mental health taking place during the pandemic, utilizing contrasting mediums to create a pause in time using suspended bodies in an abstract space.

"Fernando has created a universe where these two completely separate worlds — the abstract and the hyperreal — exist together,” said Elena Rodriguez, exhibitions curator for Rockport Center for the Arts. “He has created a body of work that has both tension and harmony.”

Born in 1987 in the border town of Acuña, Mexico, and living in San Antonio since the age of 7, Andrade began drawing professionally in 2012, often conveying the many facets of the immigrant experience through his work, including drawings, abstract paintings, and mixed media.

Today, he is known more for his representational, emotive drawings created by using figures and objects to explore sociopolitical commentary and his cross-cultural identity. “My figurative works are often reflective imagery capturing the emotional complexity of the immigrant experience. I attempt to emphasize humanity, isolation, mental health, and loss,” said Andrade.
In contrast, his abstract paintings are improvised and organic colorful compositions. “I view my abstract paintings as therapeutic, allowing myself to imagine space, arrangement, and rhythmic affinities.”

Andrade has worked with galleries in Manhattan and Santa Fe, Andrade has exhibited his work in numerous galleries including solo shows at Gerald Peter’s Project Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M.; and Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio; as well as duo and group shows at the Mexican Cultural Institute, San Antonio; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago; Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA; and Southwest School of Art, San Antonio. Andrade has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, and Elevarte Community Studio in Chicago and was the recipient of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures individual artist grant in 2018.

The exhibition at Rockport Center for the Arts will be Andrade’s first in the Coastal Bend. “I am happy to be exhibiting at the new Rockport Center for the Arts — it’s such a beautiful space.”