Much of the history of painting is tied to the desire for permanence. Can painting endure, yet remain ephemeral? This is the challenge taken on by Antioquian artist Fernández Granada (Fernando Fernández Granada, 1952) in his exhibition “Ephemerals”, developed from images of pictorial interventions on rocks found in the Cauca Canyon, Jericó, and El Peñol in the southwest of Colombia.
The intervened stones—referred to as lithophotographs by Fernández Granada—carry a remote history, not only marked by geological sediments but also by the imprint of local lifestyles. In transitioning from a lithic support to the photographic surface, the painting endures as an image, while the painted rock follows an unpredictable course.
Through these images, the artist speaks not only of what was found at ground level but also of what may lie above and beyond the celestial vault—perhaps distant planets with rugged surfaces, or premonitions of a future apocalypse or a renewed earth. We may not know exactly what is or could be before us, but we sense the presence of a transformative impulse that turns stone into landscape and painting into ritual.
Felix Suazo Curator
[PHRASES BY FERNÁNDEZ GRANADA]
“The first rock I painted was carried away by the river. It was then that I realized even a rock is ephemeral.” “La primera roca que pinté, se la llevó el río. Ahí vi que hasta una roca es efímera”.
“Stones meet you wherever you go.” “Las piedras lo encuentran a uno en cualquier parte del camino”.
“I had the idea of adding color to them so that people could see they weren't just rocks.” “Se me ocurrió meterles color para que la gente viera que no eran solo piedras”.
Fernández Granada is an artist born in 1952 in Colombia, where he currently lives. His versatility and handling of drawing and painting have allowed him to work with different shades until he finds a spectrum of nuances that demarcate, compose and characterize his work. For twelve years he worked with water-based techniques such as acrylic and watercolor. He has also experimented with the pictorial intervention of lithic supports and photography, distinctive means of his series of lithographs entitled “Ephemeral”. With reasons such as human migration, prostitution and popular culture, he has developed oil paintings, watercolors, acrylics and engravings in different formats. His tireless creative activity has allowed him to present his work individually and collectively in important local and foreign exhibition spaces, highlighting Coffey; Thompson Gallery (Charlotte, North Carolina, USA,2001), Enlace-Arte Contemporáneo Gallery (Lima, Peru, 2019), Mundo Arte Gallery (North Miami, USA,2024), as well as International Contemporary Art Fair ART3F PARIS24 with the Gaudí Gallery (Paris,France,2024). One of this most important and extensive series will soon be exhibited: “Illicit Thoughts” in the Santa Marta Museum of Modern Art in Colombia.
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