SANTOS FERNANDEZ
The rek Gallery is pleased to announce our June 2023 Featured Exhibition will showcase the works of Spanish artist Santos Fernandez. The gallery currently holds the only permanent collection in the world of Santos Fernandez’ artworks. The exhibition can be seen June 1-30 in the rek Gallery’s Featured Gallery.
Born in Cehegin, Murcia during World War II, Santos Fernandez grew up traversing the ancient cobblestone streets, hills and orchards of southeastern Spain. In 1967, Santos met Mary Cressy and after marrying, they relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota where Santos began studies towards a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Minnesota. While creating a new life and family in the United States, the bullfights, the landscapes and the seascapes of Spain forever infused his work.
Santos Fernandez exhibited in numerous galleries in the ‘80s and ‘90s. His untimely death came in his studio which was located in the basement of an old warehouse and connected by underground tunnels to a local grain mill. On August 23, 1997, Santos sculpted late into the night, unaware that fumigators had failed to properly seal the tunnels connecting his studio with the mill before they unleashed a massive, toxic dose of methyl bromide, a lethal poison, formerly used as a pesticide in the United States and banned for such use by The Environmental Protection Agency in 2001.
The June exhibition will showcase several of Santos Fernandez’ paintings and sculptures, many which have not been seen in a public gallery in three to four decades. The exhibition will be the final featured exhibition for the rek Gallery which will close to the public and transition to an expanded online gallery July 1.
