Roberto González is a man of many paradoxes. Minimalist in the resources he uses, conceptual, surrealist, with excellent technique in the area of line and color… a mix of ingredients which make for an original artist. He incorporates figures into his work which have some relation to reality, and which are organized on a plane in a capricious, dreamlike fashion.
The creator, who completed his graphic design studies in 1993, has been able to build a bridge between the psychological and the physical. His work is a continuing exploration of humanity’s evolution and survival, finding strength in dreams, hopes and aspirations, but also reality. A personal body of work which demonstrates, in elaborate compositions, the core of human emotion, expressing the victories, the obstacles overcome.
His 2012 show entitled Hombre al agua (Man overboard), focused on the man and his dilemma, as the central axis of pictorial creations which provided fertile ground for the re-use of many objects from daily life, to humanize people, which increasingly remove themselves from the essence of life, losing the compass which shows the way to happiness, the artist says… Some of these pieces, created beginning in 2011, were from his previous series: Islas e Historias cotidianas (Islands and daily stories.)
The atmosphere created in his compositions is sometimes lyrical, mysterious on other occasions. They are immersed in a setting of neutral backgrounds, which often approach abstraction. With admirable skill, he integrates elements of the day with others from traditional Western art, and, of course, ours. This is the point where the work of Roberto González can be located.
He is an artist who paints without drawing first, following his interior dictates, as the brush, layer after layer, works miracles creating a polished, magical painting, an intelligent leap into the unknown, into the soul’s questions… Despite his youth, his work has found its way to renowned auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, in New York and Paris.
And within these pieces are references to past masters. A viewing can take the observer to the extravagance of Dali, the imaginative flights of Chagall, De Chirico’s metaphysics, and Magritte’s ability to capture an instant. But there is more, always a concept among the shapes and tones. Something that tells us: I am here.
ADDRESSING IDENTIDTY
The issue of identity, in the form of a series, knocked on his door in 2013. It emerged when the artist recognized that people in current society are “identified” based on their I.D. card or passport photos, which “don’t tell me a thing about them.” Thus, it occurred to González to do some portraits painted on I.D. card photos, which included something of true identity, or simply connecting them to each other. Other pieces included were not exactly portraits, but addressed the issue from different points of view, with the intention of not only painting a face, which said little about the person, but rather humanizing the portrait, as if it were a sort of caricature with its own history and identity.
He has now put together a furniture series in which he places the individuals, to give the objects of his work a more active role. A large sampling of these pieces was successfully exhibited last year in Peru, in the Enlace de Lima gallery.
Roberto González has consciously entered the dynamic current which represents the evolution of visual arts, at the pace of the era. The excellence of his drawing allows him to create a universe, which he reveals on a painted canvas, one in which he burnishes, extracts lights, producing a tonal painting, with a quiet palette, demonstrating impeccable skill. This system is adapted to his preoccupation with light, one in which he develops a collage of situations and images which move toward a zone of contrast, where he wisely directs them, seeking to focus on a central core.
