Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Not too many contemporary artists depict ordinary family scenes but Raul Rene Gonzalez does. And he paints them realistically, in vivid colors, using a range of media and tools, on canvas, wood panels or chunks of concrete. The images are engaging, dynamic, genuine and heartwarming. Collectively, they represent an ode to family and his experience as a stay-at-home dad. Because this subject matter has been absent from academic art for so long, his paintings seem fresh and new, placing children in the center of attention in contemporary settings. And he has also portrayed other artists in their parental roles and family circles.

As a versatile artist, Gonzalez has explored other themes, as well, such as music, specifically jazz music, dance, physical work, and more.

Thanks to his multifaceted and original body of work, he has just been named Artist of the Year by the venerable San Antonio Art League and Museum (SAALM), probably the youngest person to receive this honor at age 40.

So how does it feel to be so publicly recognized and honored? We asked Gonzalez when we met at SAALM just a few days before the official opening of his show.

“I am extremely honored but I was surprised,” he said. “It’s a unique experience to show this much of my work fairly early in my career.  I am told that most Artists of the Year were older. I am lucky to have this opportunity. It’s really cool, really cool!

The Artist of the Year is selected by three out-of-town art professionals from submissions collected by a committee of SAALM members. One judge, Barbara O’Brien, the former executive director of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, used the following statements, among others, to described her choice of Gonzalez: “I am strongly in the camp of Raul Gonzalez. His art ranges from acrylic on canvas to mixed media on wood panel; from graphite, pen and pencil on paper to “story time” performances; from small works on concrete to gallery-scaled installations… Gonzalez uses the narrative of father as caretaker to powerful emotional effect, while also having an impressive command of the history and impact of geometric emotional effect… The range of his practice and the quality of all the presented works of art allow for a dynamic that has both social and aesthetic meaning…”

The SAALM exhibit is spread through several galleries on two floors of the museum. In the first downstair space you will find “ARTIST – PARENT SERIES, Gonzalez’s portraits of other artists’ families based on photographs his artist friends submitted.  Most show ordinary home scenes, rendered, of course, in bright colors and mostly as oils-on-canvas. But one family chose to be seen with their backs to the viewer. They stand in a tight grouping, the parents and three daughters, creating an image of safety in their closely-nit circle.

Gonzalez’s abstract art is installed in the main gallery. There are two bodies of abstract work in that gallery, he explained, including, “JAZZ in ACTION,” the work he painted during a three-day residency at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Over three weekends, he sat in SAMA’s spacious Great Hall, listening to jazz music and “painting the music” while visitors gathered around him, asking questions. He enjoyed the interaction, he said. In the painting, he tried to capture the flow of music but also the gestures of musicians as they play, he noted. It’s a visually beautiful piece, exuding soft kinetic energy. Another similar canvas is also part of that body of work, plus “practice compositions.”

The other body of abstract work “consists of works that I regularly produce in my studio,” said the artist. “Some of them took a couple of years to produce, working on them off and on. “They are about working intuitively. I am thinking a lot about the cosmos and space, and the controlled, beautiful chaos,” he explained. But the chaos may not always be celestial. One canvas is titled “I Woke Up Like This.” Of course, abstract art often defies description, but visually, the canvases are intriguing and eye-engaging.

The family paintings, named “DOING WORK” can be found both in the small central room on the first floor and upstairs. Laundry day, changing baby diaper, exercise, teaching a daughter how to use a tool are all there, fun and bright, cozy and intimate. We also liked his paintings on concrete chunks with irregular shapes and rough edges, which connect to his interest in portraying physical labor and construction.

Gonzales is a Houston native who attended UTSA for his MFA degree, and decided to stay in San Antonio. He likes San Antonio’s energy and spirit of community and collaboration, as well as the lively art scene. Though a stay-at-home dad, he is also one of the resident artists – and the new artistic director – at Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery where new exhibits are installed every month. To help support his family, Gonzalez also owns and runs the Werk House SA, a short-term rental Airbnb, that provides steady income He’s the recipient of numerous awards and grants, and his work can be found in several permanent collections, including the McNay’s, and more recently the new art collection at City Hall. For the latter he created three panels focusing on San Antonio’s favorite musical genres.

And he doesn’t plan to rest on his laurels.

“I have multiple projects lined up,” he said. “This year, I’ll be in Artpace’s “Chalk-it Up,” so I am working on the design of my piece for that. I have also been invited to participate in a group exhibition in Dallas at a space called Artitude, curated by (San Antonio artist) Jose Villalobos, so there I’ll be working on something totally new. The theme is immigration and anti-immigration laws. And I’ll be working with the Dreambored Band, helping them choreograph a dance for a music video… And I also have a painting that’s been sitting in my studio for six years, one of my abstract paintings!”

So, what does he hope the visitor to his Artist of the Year exhibit will take away from the experience?

“A sense of wonder and excitement,” he says somewhat tentatively, “And also, seeing all these different bodies of work, artists who visit may realize, ‘Hey, I don’t have to make just one kind of art in my career like some people tell me I need to. I can do all sorts of things, and make it work.’”
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SAALM, 130 King William St., 78204; 210-223-1140; www.saalm.org; Exhibit closes Nov. 5