Angel Fernandez was born in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico. He grew up in the northern region of Chihuahua before immigrating to Fort Worth, Texas. From an early age, he accompanied his uncle to his fabrication shop where Fernandez was exposed to object making at an early age. Desert and mountains were always visible from his childhood home, a landscape that currently greatly influences his work.
Fernandez attended Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a concentration in sculpture. Fernandez moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture.
Fernandez has taught at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, at Tarrant County College at the Southeast and Northwest campuses. His current position is Professor of Art at Tarrant County College, Trinity River Campus in downtown Fort Worth. During his one-year Faculty Development Leave he researched and traveled the Big Bend. The vast landscape and beauty of this region has attracted Fernandez and his wife, Winter Rusiloski, an abstract painter influenced by the same landscape. They have bought a 40-acre property in Terlingua Ranch where they are building a small studio.
Notable exhibitions include CICA Museum-Contemporary Drawing Exhibition in in South Korea, Third Coast Biennial Juried Exhibition, Corpus Christi, Texas, Tejano at the Longview Museum of Fine Arts, The Texas Oklahoma Art Prize at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Studio Visit Magazine, and Art Santa Fe. Cohn Drennan Contemporary in Dallas represented Fernandez’s work from 2011 to 2015.

"I have been creating imaginary organisms for the past twenty-one years. I grew up in Delicias, Chihuahua before moving to Texas in 1987. My work addresses the two cultures that form my identity combined with being a father of six. My sculptural forms, video works, drawings, and performances have a common thread of my Mexican-American identity. Biological organisms, real and imagined, such as cancer cells and desert imagery are influential. The forms I create are mysteriously inviting, and yet they threaten and give the viewer pause. Familiar materials make them approachable, while the meaning of the forms makes them repugnant. Various scales range from the intimate to the monumental; these accentuate my work's attractive and repulsive qualities. I spend a lot of time with my family in the far west Texas desert’s Big Bend region. We hand-dig ponds that will someday hold water and sustain additional life. This environment presents many physical obstacles such as lack of shade, scarce water, and limited resources. I use stuffed animals and various toys from my kids’ vast collection in an environmentally conscious consideration using readily available resources. This practice supports a delicate existence in the harsh desert environment where every resource is precious and is a reference to Chicano Rasquachismo in making the most with the least. Tires are important subject matter as they are a common material serving as fence lines, and erasers, and are strewn throughout the desert landscape; they are human creations left in the elements. I intend to continue existing in this region and creating art in its harsh and challenging environment."

— Angel Fernandez