Fernando Apodaca is an artist, director, and composer whose work has been created and exhibited internationally. His art and filmmaking style merges unique processes (3D stereoscopy, light projection, life casting, performance, and puppeteering) with visual surrealism and sculpture. Fernando explores relationships found in world cultures, and examines themes such as reproduction, growth, entropy, and obsolescence.

At age four, Fernando began his studies of the arts, focusing his energies on violin and drawing. He was encouraged by his parents Eduardo and Maria, both creators of educational games and materials. His father was gifted in oil painting and cartooning, and his mother a pianist who enjoyed making puppets. Tragedy struck the Apodaca family on October 21, 1989, when Eduardo and Maria were killed in a plane crash in Honduras. Fernando was fifteen when he moved in with his oldest sister Margaret, and began to create art prolifically in the forms of diaries and sketchbooks. These works drew inspiration from folk, primitive, and indigenous art, and from memories of his childhood. Fernando graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Pepperdine University, studied printmaking and figure painting at the SACI Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, and attended SCI-ARC (the Southern California Institute of Architecture).

Invited to work in Kenya by wildlife photographer David Gulden, Fernando created a series of artworks and an art film for a solo exhibition at Phillips in New York. Fernando worked as an artist in residence at renowned fashion and wildlife photographer Peter Beard’s hog ranch, in the capitol of Nairobi, and at the remote prehistoric graveyard of Lake Turkana. The sculptures were constructed from a diverse range of materials in bronze, glass, paper, charcoal, leather and hair. His art film “Majini” won awards for “Best Experimental” at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in 2005.

Fernando directed the music video and created artworks for Pearl Jam’s “Life Wasted” in 2006, which earned a nomination for “Best Special Effects” at the MTV Video Music Awards. He was also awarded “Best Music Video Director” at the San Diego Film Festival 2006. Pearl Jam included his drawings and sculptures throughout the album packaging.

He is Co-Founder and Art Director of the textile and fashion companies MODRA Studio and MODRA Style. British Vogue and Vogue Taiwan recently featured textiles derived from Fernando’s artwork.

Fernando’s clients have included Beats by Dr.Dre, Apple Inc., Panasonic, Adobe, Intel, Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, New York Dolls, Sonos, DTS, Altec, Patagonia, Graphic Films, and others. He has directed and produced projects in Africa, Latin America, United States, Russia, Asia, Western, and Eastern Europe.