The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) presents Bryan Fernandez: En tránsito, the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition, curated by Zuna Maza. Fernandez’s most essential tool is observation, which informs his ongoing efforts to document and center his community via large-scale paintings, mixed media, collage, and assemblage works. 

Join us for the Opening Reception on Tuesday, March 17 from 6–8pm. 

The artist’s community encompasses the Dominican diaspora in his Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights, where he was born and raised, extends to other cities in the Northeastern United States, and to places in the Dominican Republic itself—especially Santiago de los Caballeros, where his family is from, and the capital, Santo Domingo. Fernandez observes a lack of authentic representation of Dominicans in mainstream media and aims to counter colonial and anti-Black narratives by focusing on diverse experiences and cultural expressions, from the intimate and individual to the public and societal. A painter and sculptor, Fernandez introduced collage and assemblage elements in 2020, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. He has since come to integrate readily available textiles, papers, miscellaneous objects, and even trash found locally, alongside mediums like acrylic and pastel.     

En tránsito (in transit) is a selection of Fernandez’s recent work addressing diasporic flows, modes of transportation, and the surveillance and policing of communities in public space. During his residency at ISCP in 2024, the artist followed a documentary artistic exercise focused on transit methods and the Dominican community in Manhattan and in the Dominican Republic. The resulting artworks underscore the racial, colonial, and imperial tensions around individual agency, freedom of transportation, and ever-present systems of control, all mediated through Fernandez’s dynamic material explorations. The artist credits his own interactions, both recent and past, and Dixa Ramírez’s Colonial Phantoms: Belonging and Refusal in the Dominican Americas, from the 19th Century to the Present (NYU Press, 2018) for setting him on this path.

Bryan Fernandez is an interdisciplinary artist from Washington Heights, New York City who is of Afro-Dominican descent. Fernandez holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and is an MFA candidate at Yale School of Art. His works have been exhibited at institutions including The Shed, New York; New Image Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California; MECA Art Fair, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Untitled Art Fair, Miami, Florida. He is a two-time Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grantee and his work is currently in the Bronx AIM biennial at the Bronx Museum, New York. He is a 2024–25 recipient of The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund Residency at ISCP. 

Zuna Maza is a curator from San Juan, Puerto Rico, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her curatorial practice focuses on installation, multimedia, and material-focused projects. She is Assistant Curator at El Museo del Barrio, where she recently co-curated Candida Alvarez: Circle, Point, Hoop, the artist’s first museum survey in New York. Prior to joining El Museo, she held curatorial roles and fellowships at Dia Art Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Maza is an editor of a forthcoming publication on Candida Alvarez and was part of the editorial team for Delcy Morelos (Dia Art Foundation, 2024). She received her MA from Hunter College.

Bryan Fernandez: En tránsito is curated by Zuna Maza. It is supported by The New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund; Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Foundation; Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso; Hartfield Foundation; James Rosenquist Foundation; Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Council District 34; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; van Beuren Charitable Foundation; William Talbott Hillman Foundation; and Woodman Family Foundation.

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Accessibility information: Please note that the entrance to ISCP has seven steps and a ramp, which is ADA compliant. There are seven artist studios and one exhibition space which can be accessed on the first floor of ISCP. There is an accessible bathroom on the first floor at the end of the hallway, up one step, where the artist studios are located. To access the second floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 22 steps. The second floor has 22 artist and curator studios, one exhibition space, and a lounge where remarks by our guest speaker will take place. To access the third floor there is a staircase with a grab bar installed on the right side with 24 steps. The third floor has five artist and curator studios. ISCP can access a freight elevator to bring visitors between the first and second floors on request. 

ISCP can offer two reserved parking spaces on request for people with disabilities. Please email programs@iscp-nyc.org to request a parking space and/or freight elevator usage.