Erik Gonzales

archeologica antica

[ august 12th - 28st, 2011 ]

Erik Gonzales creates tactile expressions that coalesce colors, textures, and symbols using a rich and intricate mixed media surface composed of dried pigments, clay and powdered marble. Each painting is a universe unto itself, an organic structure within orderly grids representing the complexities of civilization and the hidden order of things. Mimicking the controlled chaos of nature, the work presents visual allegories of time and myth. Beneath the unconventional material surfaces there is layer after layer of the history of the painting and process.

He considers his new series to be artifacts themselves, rather than images of things. Discovery is an essential ingredient and through discovery comes exploration followed by understanding and enlightenment. It is here, that what was once old becomes new and what is new appears to have been excavated within our collective past.

Erik Gonzales, American, born 1973 was raised in Colorado and Connecticut. In 1990 he moved to Arizona and attended Arizona State University; his studies led him to Madrid in 1995 where he obtained a second degree in Spanish Studies. Gonzales has exhibited in several notable public institutions and invitationals such as the Scotts- dale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Florence Biennale, the Bronx Museum, the Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Art and the Riverside Art Museum.