Francisco-Fernando Granados was born in Guatemala and lives in Toronto, Dish With One Spoon Territory. Since 2005, his practice has traced a movement from convention refugee to critical citizen, enacting abstraction site-specifically and relationally to create projects that challenge the stability of practices of recognition. His work has developed from the intersection of formal painterly training at Langara College, working in performance through artist-run spaces, the study of queer and feminist theory at Emily Carr University, and early activism as a peer support worker with immigrant and refugee communities in Coast Salish Territories. This layering of experiences trained his intuitions to seek context-responsive approaches, alternative forms of distribution, and the weaving of lyrical and critical propositions. Key projects include ‘who claims abstraction?’ (2023-24) a solo exhibition and artist book produced with SFU Galleries (Vancouver BC); ‘foreward’ (2021-23), a series of site specific installations in dialogue with the permanent collection at The MacLaren Art Centre (Barrie ON); and ‘refugee reconnaissance’ (2021), a bilingual compilation of performance scores spanning 2005-2013 exhibited at AXENÉO7 (Gatineau QC). Other highlights include participation in international group shows on contemporary queer aesthetics at the Hessel Museum (2015) and Ramapo College (2016) in the United States and Malmö Konstmuseum (2022) in Sweden.
