Florida International University's College of Architecture The Arts (CARTA) Alumna Teresita Fernandez Receives Distinguished Alumni Award at Torch Awards Gala

MIAMI, FL, April 10, 2013 (Press-News.org) Florida International University's (FIU) CARTA alumna Teresita Fernández received the Distinguished Alumni Award at the 12th annual FIU Torch Awards Gala on Saturday, March 23, 2013. The Distinguished Alumni Awards recognizes alumni who have brought honor and distinction to the university through their notable record of service and achievement in a particular discipline, organization or cause.

Fernández was born in Miami and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from FIU with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. She is the recipient of a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, an American Academy in Rome Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Artist's Grant. In 2011, President Obama appointed Fernández to serve on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, a federal panel that advises the president, Congress and governmental agencies on national matters of design and aesthetics.

Fernández is best known for her prominent public sculptures and unconventional use of materials. Her work is characterized by an interest in perception and the natural world. Diverse in materials and wide-ranging conceptually, Fernández creates experiential, large-scale works that are often inspired by landscape and place as well as diverse historical and cultural references. She has had numerous major solo exhibitions including the Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC; ICA, Philadelphia; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Malaga; Miami Art Museum, Miami; Site Santa-Fe; and the USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa.

About The College of Architecture + The Arts:
With more than 1,400 majors in seven academic departments—Architecture, Art and Art History, Communication Arts, Interior Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Music, and Theatre—the College of Architecture + The Arts is proud to offer undergraduate and graduate students an intimate and nurturing atmosphere that offers opportunities for individual attention while promoting the creative spirit in the pursuit of knowledge and the cultivation of imagination, intellectual curiosity, and artistic expression For more information, visit CARTA's website at: http://carta.fiu.edu/ or http://vimeo.com/49453119

About FIU:
Florida International University is recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a community engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. It has 160,000 alumni and enrolls 50,000 students on two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of the Sun Belt Conference and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu.