Brendan Fernandes,
Associate Professor,

Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual art. Based in Chicago, his practice explores race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. Seeking to create new spaces for agency and belonging, Fernandes’ work often takes hybrid forms; part ballet, part queer dance party, part political protest, while remaining grounded in collaboration and participation in order to find solidarity. Fernandes is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007) and has received numerous awards, including the Platform Award (2024), the Creative Voice Award from Arts Alliance Illinois (2024), an Artadia Award (2019), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant (2019), a Robert Rauschenberg Residency Fellowship (2014), and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020). His work has been presented internationally at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, among many others. He was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and has developed major projects with museums, public art organizations, and performing arts institutions across North America and beyond. Fernandes is Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Theory, and Practice at Northwestern University and is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, and Susan Inglett Gallery, New York. Recent solo exhibitions and performances have been presented at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis), the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, The Fabric Workshop and Museum (Philadelphia), Museo Tamayo (Mexico City), and Prospect.6 (New Orleans). Current projects include a major solo exhibition at the Driehaus Museum (Chicago), presentations at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Ford Foundation Gallery (New York), and participation in the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art.

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