I make murals and illustrations that use texture, pattern and color to explore relationships: shape and edges, harmony and disharmony, novelty and stability. My images arise from a drawing-based form-making language involving photography, digital collage and layer-building. I owe much to artists of the Expressionist lineage, from Kokoschka to Neel; like them, I value the irrational and the absurd, play and intuition as modes of thinking and research, and paradox and complexity over the obvious answers. I make art to understand. I make art to ask questions.
photo credit: Kris Hardin
Andrew Fearnside is a New Mexico-based artist guided by ongoing interests in psychology, social justice, pop culture and spiritual life. After completing a BFA in painting and drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in his native Boston, he made paintings and performances and found work as a designer, dancer, teacher and psychotherapist.
In Albuquerque — where he has lived since 2001 — he has produced several permanent public murals, as private commissions and also through the City's public art program. His work has been featured in festivals and as temporary window displays and in exhibitions throughout Albuquerque.
Devoted to supporting community, Andrew was a Liturgical Artist in Residence at First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, where he is a member. He is also a member of the TIASO co-op and holds a studio at Harwood Art Center. His newest project with Artful Life and the City of Albuquerque’s Vision Zero initiative, is emerging from a sustained period of community engagement. It will take the form of a mural, produced with the collaboration of seven Youth Artists from the neighborhood that the mural will serve. For many years, he has led community-based immersive installation projects through a loose collective of local artists, the Unicorn Collective.
Andrew creates award-winning books, zines and coloring books with his sister through their enterprise, Chimera Projects. Their publication O! Relentless Death! Celebrity, Loss, and Mourning received a 2019 Independent Publishers Book Award in the Independent Voice category.