FIDEL FERNÁNDEZ WINS AICA PARAGUAY 2023 AWARD

The International Association of Art Critics in Paraguay (AICA-Py) awarded the AICA 2023 Prize to the exhibition Cuadernos de campo (Field Notebooks) by Fidel Fernández, curated by Adriana Almada and exhibited during Pinta Sud 2023 at the Arte Actual gallery in Asuncion.

May 30, 2024
FIDEL FERNÁNDEZ WINS AICA PARAGUAY 2023 AWARD

Presented within the framework of Pinta Sud 2023, Cuadernos de campo exhibited paintings, xylography and engravings, and an installation with takuru (termite nests) made by artist Fidel Fernández, who addresses a sustained reflection on reality with a critical sense that appeals to social satire.

 

Adriana Almada, curator of the exhibition, explains: “Fidel Fernández reaches painting through the path of words. An unexpected journey, carried out against the current of the widely expanded habit of going into painting from photography. He observes and writes. And this personal writing that sets down on paper everyday situations in an ethnographic way is the plot that sustains his painting”. The exhibition highlighted the relationship between the discursive order involved in the investigation of reality and its translation into image through the execution of works.

 

Today, Thursday, May 30, at 7.30 p.m., the award ceremony will take place at the Arte Actual Gallery, where the artist, the curator and the gallery will receive the recognition.

 

The AICA Paraguay Award is a recognition to an art exhibition, granted since 2015. This is the ninth edition of the award. Previous awardees were: Ruth Estigarribia for her urban intervention Teleprompter (2015), Bernardo Kraniansky for his exhibitions Historias de corte y montaje (CAV/Museo del Barro & Fundación Texo, 2016) and 50/75. Recent and archival work (Migliorisi Foundation/Art Collections, 2016), Sara Leoz for her exhibition Ahora! (Fábrica Gallery, 2017), Ricardo Migliorisi for his work El gran manto (2018), Osvaldo Salerno for his exhibition Caja de Herramientas (Fábrica Gallery, 2019), the exhibition Feliciano, with work by Feliciano Centurión (Fundación Texo, 2020), the group exhibition Colmar de Memoria el olvido (Centro Cultural de España Juan de Salazar, 2021), and the exhibition Ahora o nunca by Bettina Brizuela (Fundación Texo, 2022).

Fidel Fernández was born in San Juan Bautista del Ñeembucu, Paraguay, in 1984. He is a self-taught artist who has exhibited individually and collectively in the country and abroad and has won several awards, including the Henri Matisse Award, which allowed him an artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. His work is represented in public and private collections in Paraguay and other countries.

 

Adriana Almada is an art critic, curator and editor. Born in Salta, Argentina, she has lived for decades in Paraguay, where she has been actively involved in the artistic and cultural life of the country. She has curated dozens of national and international exhibitions. She is currently artistic director of the Mendonca Collection and director of the culture section of the newspaper El Nacional.

Related Topics

eZ debug

Timing: Jan 29 2026 04:27:44
Script start
Timing: Jan 29 2026 04:27:44
Module start 'content'
Timing: Jan 29 2026 04:27:44
Module end 'content'
Notice: PHP: E_NOTICE Jan 29 2026 04:27:44
Array to string conversion in /var/www/sites/cms4/ez-2013.09/var/artealdia_com/cache/template/compiled/page_head-41456490553c6342610ca0a1b2d2cc7c.php on line 939
Timing: Jan 29 2026 04:27:44
Script end

Main resources:

Total runtime0.0648 sec
Peak memory usage4,352.0000 KB
Database Queries71

Timing points:

CheckpointStart (sec)Duration (sec)Memory at start (KB)Memory used (KB)
Script start 0.00000.0059 913.6406607.5703
Module start 'content' 0.00590.0092 1,521.2109633.3906
Module end 'content' 0.01520.0495 2,154.60161,722.2109
Script end 0.0647  3,876.8125 

Time accumulators:

 Accumulator Duration (sec) Duration (%) Count Average (sec)
Ini load
Load cache0.00355.3363150.0002
Mysql Total
Database connection0.00091.377610.0009
Mysqli_queries0.014121.8288710.0002
Looping result0.00060.9889710.0000
TS translator
TS init0.00274.196530.0009
TS cache load0.00192.916930.0006
TS context load0.00172.666930.0006
Template Total0.048474.710.0484
Template load0.00192.978710.0019
Template processing0.046471.709510.0464
Template load and register function0.00010.146510.0001
Override
Cache load0.00121.858820.0006
Sytem overhead
Fetch class attribute name0.00040.577610.0004
Fetch class attribute can translate value0.00000.033910.0000
class_abstraction
Instantiating content class attribute0.00000.018810.0000
XML
Image XML parsing0.00111.734010.0011
states
state_id_array0.00111.628050.0002
state_identifier_array0.00132.059850.0003
General
dbfile0.007912.2215220.0004
String conversion0.00000.016920.0000
Note: percentages do not add up to 100% because some accumulators overlap

Time used to render debug report: 0.0003 secs