Arts Alive San Antonio

by JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –

If you pass by Artpace these days, you’ll notice that the large window facing the street is covered in bright, colorful strips, from edge to edge. It’s a mural of sorts, made of cardboard and duct tape. When you step inside into the Main Space Gallery, you will find a similar installation there, whose effect is amplified by the two side walls which are equally covered with patterns of colorful strips. In fact, the work is named “Front and Back, and Side to Side.”  

“First, I thought, I would use the window outside. I wanted to change the face of Artpace outside,” said artist Raul Gonzalez at the press preview of the exhibit. “I wanted the light and shadows to be part of the piece, so it will be always changing during the course of a day. The Main Space is always changing at Artpace (with different shows), so I captured that abstractly.”

But then, he decided to cover every inch of wall space inside the gallery as well, completely transforming the environment. The effect is a bit dizzying and maybe the artist felt it too as he was working on it because he said that he allowed himself to “get lost in it.”

 “I mostly paint realistically, so this was a big departure to me,” he noted. Working on parts of the huge abstract installation in his studio, Gonzalez was reminded of Jackson Pollock’s free approach to creating his famed “action paintings” by impulsively dripping paint on canvases spread on the floor. Gonzalez said he had felt that same kind of “energy release” while playing with his strips, also laid out on the floor.

The very fitting title references lyrics from the Texas rap group UGK, says the press release.

In his usual work, Gonzalez tends to focus on work and labor imagery, construction and the working class, mostly through painting, drawing and printmaking. He holds an MFA in Painting from UTSA and has been part of group exhibits at the McNay Art Museum, the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, grayDUCK Gallery and Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and in other museums and galleries. He recently completed a studio residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

But he is also a dancer who will show that side of his artistic talents at a closing performance at Artpace on August 15.

The work of Daniel Rios Rodriguez shown in the upstairs Hudson Showroom couldn’t be more different. Consisting of about 15 paintings and a number of small sculptures grouped on a centrally-placed table, his first solo show in Texas, titled “Bruisers,” is all about snakes. An intriguing theme, for sure, both aesthetically and emotionally/philosophically. Though he acknowledged dreaming about snakes- and even looking for them at a snake farm – Rios Rodriguez emphasized that he was mostly intrigued by the animal’s body forms and shapes.

“I stumbled upon these forms and then I started making them. They are all over my house… My pieces are not message-driven. People can project their own ideas and meaning on them.”

He paints on a variety of surfaces, including wood and ceramics, frequently combining thick paint with three-dimensional elements such serpentine ropes and wire. The shapes “allow for movement in space,” he observed.

That’s certainly true for the sculptures, where the undulating snake-like curves predominate. Ultimately, his pieces are both pleasing to the eye and a gentle tease for the brain.

As to why he called his paintings “Bruisers,” he explained that he got the term from a friend who calls certain individuals “bruisers,” people who act “as if they have been pushing their way through the world.”

 “I largely think of my paintings in that way,” said Rios Rodriguez. “It’s like birthing. I have two children and I saw it happen. It’s hard. Birthing paintings feels similar in that way.  My paintings go through a lot before they grow up.”

Rios Rodriguez’s work has been exhibited in a number of U.S. cities and abroad, including in Berlin, London, Mexico City, Toronto and Dublin. According to the brief bio supplied by Artpace, his work was featured and discussed in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Art in America. He teaches painting at the Southwest School of Art.

The exhibits close Aug.18.