Mike Fernandez | OJOSEXO STUDIO
OJOSEXO STUDIO is the creative practice of LA-based mixed-media artist Mike Fernandez. With a background in fashion—nearly a decade in New York as a wardrobe stylist, hairstylist, and groomer—my work draws from the aesthetics of editorial image-making. Working across digital, Polaroid, and 35mm formats, I explore homoeroticism, bold typography, and the visual mechanics of power, longing, and control.
Through collage and photography, I deconstruct familiar cultural symbols to examine the friction between identity and image. Sourcing material from vintage advertising, bodybuilding magazines, and subcultural ephemera, I create layered visual narratives that are assembled by hand. These works are not fixed compositions but evolving ideas—expanded into large-scale painting collages where cut-paper is reimagined with water-based glue and acrylic on canvas, blurring the lines between print, painting, and assemblage.Born and raised in Sacramento, California, and partially in San Francisco, Mike Fernandez is the son of gay fathers, a unique upbringing that shaped his visual identity. He spent nearly a decade in New York working in commercial and editorial fashion as a wardrobe stylist, hairstylist, and groomer. His transition into photography was a natural extension of his aesthetic exploration, leading him to mixed-media and collage. Now based in Los Angeles, he operates under OJOSEXO STUDIO, where he continues his investigations into visual culture through large-scale collage paintings that blend digital and analog techniques.A Fine Arts and Vidal Sassoon academy alum, my work has been exhibited in galleries and publications, existing at the intersection of fashion, photography, and contemporary art. OJOSEXO STUDIO is the synthesis of these influences—a space where past and present media collide, remix, and take on new life.Exhibitions and Publications
May -September 2025, Sports VII: CRYIN’ AT THE GYM, The Naughton Gallery at Queen’s, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
May 2025, “Two’s A Crowd”, Group Exhibition, Tiger Strike Asteroid, Philadelphia, PA
November 2024, Ace Hotel's Globally Artist in Residency Finalist
November 2024, Icon-ic, Group Exhibition, Covet Gallery, Oceanside, CA
October 2024, The NEXT, Art Show, Group Exhibition, Covet Gallery, Oceanside, CA
July 2022, Cute Gloom Group Show exhibition, Lauren Powell Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
March 2022, New Mythology Group Show exhibition, Steven Arnold, Mike Fernandez, Daniel Morowitz, Lauren Powell Projects Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Feb 2022, “Blue Boy”, singer, songwriter Fields for LadyGunn Magazine, photo editorial feature
January 2022, Mike by Mike, singer, song writer Mike Taveira for Totem Tienda Magazine, photo editorial feature
Dec 2021, Tom of Finland Art and Culture Festival, Raw Anatomy, Online Viewing room
Dec 2021, Round the Block, Photographs and Collages, Solo Exhibition, solo produced pop up gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Oct 2021, Iris Covet Magazine, Johnny Sibilly Of HBO’S “Hacks”, photo editorial feature
July 2020, Pineapple Magazine, “Noir Gaze”, photo editorial feature
April 2020, Pineapple Magazine, “For Sadao” photo editorial feature
Feb 2019, Vogue Arabia, “ Freedom Fighter, creative direction, fashion, photo editorial
June 2019, Iris Covet Magazine, ” Nightskin” featuring artist DESAMPA, creative direction, fashion, photo, editorial
April, 2018, King Kong Magazine, “Men like Gods”, creative direction, photo editorial feature
Education
Vidal Sassoon Academy, Los Angeles – 2010
Sacramento City College – Associate of Fine Arts (AFA), 2008