​Michael Fernandes

Michael Fernandes is many things: an interdisciplinary artist, an educator, an improvisational musician, a gifted ping pong player and an avid garlic farmer, among others. Born in Trinidad in 1944, he immigrated to Canada in the 1960’s, living in Montreal and Toronto before settling in Nova Scotia. Michael has taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) since 1973. In describing his work Michael rejects many notions associated with a conventional understanding of art. For him there is no framing of what art is and is not, everyday actions and objects all have something to contribute. In turn, he considers his life an evolving artwork, something which can be shared with a public audience but does not have to be. These ideas are explored through painting, photography, sculpture, video, performance, and installation.

No Sphere (1988), Michael Fernandes’ work at the Embassy Cultural House was a two-part installation, occupying one of the hotel’s 2nd floor guests' rooms and spilling over into the main floor gallery/cafe area. Conceived as a meditation on dreaming, the hotel guest room featured a large pink wall painting made to be seen through a full-length mirror. Inscribed within the painting was a modern-day parable about a man’s journey to rid himself of the fly he had eaten by mistake. In the story several doctors are unable to cure the man’s condition (the buzzing fly inside) with modern medicine. He finds relief when a stranger asks him to lay down with eyes closed and point to the fly’s location. The stranger places a glass with a freshly caught fly on the spot and convinces the patient he is cured. The choice to physically carve the letters into the wall was made in reference to the inscribed signatures of former tenants found in the room’s closet. The second component to No Sphere consisted of a set of printed placemats that were used in the ECH gallery/cafe area. Written on the placemats was a related poem on dreaming, made to capture the attention of those who had just awoken, perhaps still thinking about their own dreams from the night past.
Michael had previously exhibited at the Forest City Gallery in the early 1980's when Ron Benner was the gallery's manager. During his visit to London at that time, Ron took Michael to the clay cliffs of Lake Erie, between Plum Point and Patrick Point - where upon after descending the heights of the cliffs, Michael found a fallen tree to rest upon where he had a view of the sky and the sound of the waves. 

Michael Fernandes has exhibited extensively in galleries across Canada and internationally. His work was included in Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, the nationally touring exhibition which positioned his work within the concepts of Fluxus movement and conceptual art. In 2020, he received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. His iphone work was the first work submitted to the open-call exhibition Hiding in Plain Sight.  Please visit his website for more information.
Michael Fernandes, "Writing on the Wall", 2020, Iphone video

Recent Work

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Pinocchio's Assistant, 2020
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Before and After the Electric Car, 2020
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Grow Rock, 2020
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This One, 2020
EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS  
Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou and Dan Smoke,  and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Ira Kazi, ​Shelley Kopp, Ashar Mobeen & Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt
OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 
The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the Mentorship program established by the Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and faculty of Arts & Humanities at Western University. 

Thank you to our partners

E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located in London, Ontario, Canada on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Attawandaron and Huron-Wendat peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum and other treaties. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial. 
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