Brendan Fernandes Merges Dance and Visual Art at Driehaus Museum Residency

Brendan Fernandes, a 46-year-old artist born in Nairobi and based in Chicago, has launched "In the Round," a residency at the Driehaus Museum's Murphy Auditorium. The centerpiece is "Score for the Murphy Auditorium," a performance-installation where seven dancers perform semi-improvisatory contemporary dance around 12 mirrored benches arranged in a dodecagon. Dancers leave handprints, footprints, and humidity marks on the benches, blurring boundaries between dance and visual art. The work, curated by Stephanie Cristello, runs periodically through November 2026. Fernandes, who studied ballet and visual arts at York University and the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program, cites "Encomium" as a breakthrough piece. His previous Chicago work includes "72 Seasons" at Lurie Garden in 2021. The residency challenges conventional performance formats, with no fixed seating or scheduled start times, allowing visitors to encounter rehearsals and evolving choreography.