ALBERT GONZALES

Albert Gonzales is a post-contemporary artist based in San Antonio, TX. He is heavily influenced by post-WWII artists like Jackson Pollock, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, but also draws inspiration from the masters like Henri Matisse and Van Gogh. With this broad range of inspirations, Gonzales’s fine art approaches are visual experiments within composition, style, and technique. From abstraction to still life to portraits, his art can span multiple genres. With bold color palettes, his often “outrageous” paintings are fun and unpredictable. As a great commentator on his own art style, his showmanship brings forth the passion for his art and his need to create. His audience is able to see and feel his dearest dedication to the craft. With his paintings, he hopes to reflect a feeling of liveliness and compassion for the love he has for the visual arts. Gonzales wants the audience to feel this feeling if only for a second but touched and moved for a lifetime. Albert Gonzales’s accolades include the “Step Inside My Mind” solo exhibition; “Hecho A Mano” group exhibition at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center; artist participant in a city-wide art project for a non-profit organization titled, Clarity in the Pin Wheels for Change campaign where he painted alongside 16 other internationally and nationally renowned artists. Gonzales’s list of prominent collectors and collections includes the acquisition of seven paintings into the UTSA Art Collection by the invitation of Dr. Ricardo Romo. Gonzales has also donated artwork to the UTSA Alumni Gala and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Best known for his simplistically minimal abstract flower paintings, Gonzales gives voice to the new and upcoming generation of artists of San Antonio.

WORKS

Wabi Sabi Series

Wabi Sabi, a Japanese philosophy that can be translated to the idea of embracing the beauty of the imperfect, or in simple terms, perfectly imperfect. Through my art, I translate that philosophy by abstracting the flowers I paint. I create these non-anatomically correct flowers to stand as a symbol meaning we are the flower. We all have our own imperfections or insecurities. Throughout this series, I like to use bold colors to encourage the viewer to look past the abstract and imperfect. Water is a universal symbol of life throughout many cultures. In this series, I use water to tell a story of life by keeping the water in the vase in a constant fluid motion even though the vase is on a flat plane. We all have our ups and downs in life. Personally, I like to say that sometimes we just have to go with the flow, but most of all, just as the water helps the flower grow and bloom, we need to embrace our life experiences – the good and the bad – and let them help us grow into the people we want to be.