A Creative
Connector.
Linda Fernandez is a Cuban-American artist, educator, and founding member of Philadelphia's Amber Art and Design collective. Her practice spans painting, mural work, digital design on textile, and community-led artmaking across the U.S. and the Caribbean.
Bridging art, culture, and community.
Linda Fernandez is a multicultural artist and educator whose work features bright colors, designs and symbols that reflect her Caribbean heritage. She's inspired by the ways in which nature, architecture and history weave together to tell stories of people and the places they call home. Her work merges themes of identity and home across physical, social and cultural divides by exploring Caribbean heritage through a diasporic lens.
She is a founding member of Amber Art and Design, an artist collective based in Philadelphia that creates public art through engagement with community members. Linda has earned a Bachelor's degree in Art Education from Tyler School of Art, a certificate in Contemporary Art from Metafora Escola de Arte Contemporaneo in Barcelona, Spain, and a Master's in Public Administration from Austin W. Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.
She is an alumna of Community Arts Education Leadership Institute, National Urban Fellows and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute's Intercultural Advocacy Fellowship. She has received notable grants including the 2024 Philadelphia Cultural Treasures project grant for Creative Freedom & Experimentation, the 2023 Art is Essential grant for her work in Cobbs Creek, and the 2014 & 2015 Leeway Foundation Art & Change grant. She is a founding member of the women-owned artist collective Site and Story, and a member of InLiquid Gallery.
“My artwork explores the theme of home as a feeling of connection to people, memory, and the natural world. I'm interested in how home can exist within us, across landscapes, and through ancestral memory. I draw inspiration from Latin American tilework, vibrant color palettes, and organic patterns that reference nature's rhythms. These visual elements become metaphors for identity, migration, and the layered histories of the diaspora. I'm inspired by Spanish tilework, which became popular throughout Latin America and the Caribbean through colonization of these lands. In response to this colonial influence, I create tile inspired paintings with symbols to remix the status quo and proclaim identity. By using the tile as both symbol and structure, I reimagine forms rooted in colonial history as spaces for reclamation and healing.
Through painting, textiles, and participatory workshops, I invite others to reflect on what makes them feel at home and what spaces, memories, or connections foster a sense of belonging. In collaborative settings, I guide participants to design their own symbols that represent identity, resilience, and care. These collective symbols become part of larger works that honor the power of shared authorship and the many ways we construct home together.”
Where she trained.
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Tyler School of Art
BA, Art Education · Temple University, Philadelphia -
Metàfora Escola d'Art Contemporani
Certificate, Contemporary Art · Barcelona, Spain -
Austin W. Marxe School of Public & International Affairs
MPA · Baruch College, CUNY -
Community Arts Education Leadership Institute
Alumna
Communities of practice.
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Amber Art and Design
Founding member · Philadelphia public-art collective -
Site and Story
Founding member · women-owned artist collective -
InLiquid Gallery
Member -
National Urban Fellows
Alumna · public-service leadership fellowship -
CCCADI Intercultural Advocacy Fellowship
Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
Want to work together?
Linda accepts a limited number of mural, painting, fabric, and community-engagement commissions each year.
Start an inquiry →