Stud III | Brendan Fernandes

Medium: Screenprint
Paper Type: Stonehenge
Year: 2019
Edition Size: 10
Dimensions: 36″ x 30″
Inscriptions: Edition, Signature, Year (Verso)
Published Spudnik Press Cooperative

Stud is a new edition of screenprints by artist and choreographer Brendan Fernandes. The print is composed of leather belt stud patterns the artist pulled from catalogues from the Leather Archives and Museum. From a time when the practices of queer and kink communities were actively censored and criminalized, these ephemeral and zine-like catalogues were xeroxed and circulated covertly within communities – a far cry from the leather and kink storefronts and online shops we see today. Printed on oversized paper with a slick, glossy finish except for a deep matte black center, these monolithic prints have a magnetic pull on the viewer.

Like much of Fernandes’ work, this print remixes materials from the archive, in this case an archive of images that are already highly codified and abstracted for their own protection. Fernandes’ new composition builds on this history of abstraction by composing new minimalist, nested compositions that honor how these abstractions protected and were protected by individuals within their communities. Always looking to create new spaces and new forms of agency, Brendan’s projects take on hybrid forms that are always rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity.

Brendan Fernandes is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Currently based in Chicago, Brendan’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and collective movement. He graduated from the Whitney Independent Study Program and was a Robert Rauschenberg Fellow. His work has shown at the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, the Getty Museum, National Gallery of Canada, and the MCA Chicago.