Lady Praxis: Grace Carter Mercado-Quinn at Antonio Gallery
- Kristine Schomaker
- 2 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Tm Gratkowski
With intent and the will to do it her own way, there is a gallery in the most unlikely of places, off the 210 freeway on Lincoln Avenue in Pasadena. Imagine walking into the parking lot of an old lumber yard, stumbling down a paved area past old materials, equipment, and a small cluster of shed-like buildings. Nothing new, no signs, just your average ubiquitous Southern California lot. As you wander in you notice a little welcoming front porch and tucked away in the corner is the entry for a little gallery called Antonio.
Georgia Fernandez, owner of Antonio Gallery, set out to turn this ordinary location into an incubator for artists just getting their start in the art world and a starting point for the gallery to grow beyond its humble beginnings. The gallery is named after her father, Antonio Fernandez, who suddenly passed away in 2020. Well known in the Chinatown art scene in the early 2000s as "Mister Banjo," he was a creative musician who sought out small galleries and played the banjo on a six-foot-tall stool. Georgia strives to create a space as creative as he was. On a recent opening night Georgia mentioned, "I am looking for young artists whose careers are just beginning so I can help foster and nurture their growth." With a rich history and a clear purpose, it is definitely the beginning of something unique.
All too common is the art world's mentioning of gallery closures — it is reassuring to find a gallery with high goals in a market of struggling returns. Located near ArtCenter College of Design, you get a sense that Antonio is positioning itself on the crest of something big, just about to break before anyone sees it coming. The gallery has been putting on exhibitions since September 2025 and, in keeping true to their mission, they continue to find artists just entering the scene. As Pae White remarked at the gallery's recent opening on May 16, "Antonio captures the spirit of the casual ad hoc galleries of the '80s and early '90s. These were ephemeral spaces that popped up in residential homes and converted garages and seemed to lend themselves to exhibitions that felt more experimental and less institutional."
On that Saturday night the parking lot was crowded and buzzing with well-known art world figures, all there to see the work of Grace Carter Mercado-Quinn, currently an undergraduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Grace's show, entitled Lady Praxis, explores ways in which unconventional portrayals of women's bodies become taboo, transgressive, abject, or even monstrous in our societal patriarchy. She wants to change that and, as few do, rather than just saying it, she is acting on it.
Grace's work shows a deliberate sensitivity to materials, with a very rich and textured surface allowing viewers to get a closer look at the alchemy of her process. Her color palette is simple and monochromatic, used with deliberate intent so we can focus on the subject without getting lost in the rhetoric of an emotional debate. Often imbued with her poetry, the intent of the artist is more gentle than confrontational — and that is her point. It is her personal point of view that holds our attention. As the viewer gets closer to the materiality of the surfaces, we are confronted with the position she wants to address, and from that point there is no backing away.
So that any of us can better understand these complex issues she is living out in front of us, these works begin to sensitively unravel the challenging topics they confront, and the viewer can begin to see the world as she sees it. How any of us actually live in and experience these complex times is one thing; how we choose to live in it and change it is another. For Grace, it is personal — and that is refreshing to see in any artist's work.
Lady Praxis with work by Grace Carter Mercado-Quinn May 16–June 16, 2026 Antonio Gallery 1464 Lincoln Ave, Pasadena, CA, Unit E Open by appointment only @aantoniogallery aantoniogallery@gmail.com 213-610-2040
