Gonzalo García

CAM Galería presents the exhibition Flesh by Gonzalo García, curated by Charles Moore.

My work as a figurative painter examines my experience as a gay man living in Mexico today. My early paintings and drawings are more explicitly erotic because they focus exclusively on human flesh and depict the vulnerability of the self-portrait through the lens of intimacy and sex. Over time, I began to paint my friends in similar states, drawing on a seductive, mystical realism in the works to evoke the physicality of each subject and overall sense of desire. While these self-portraits allowed me to explore and ultimately discover who I was as a gay male artist, lately I have been forced to work more metaphorically and bring to life more subdued sexual motifs like flowers, with a variety of textures and colors. that echo the human body but allow the viewer to draw their own conclusions.

In both the portraits and the still lifes, key themes unite the works. These include the body, sexuality, frailty, and undercurrents of violence. The latter lies below the surface of the scene depicted on the canvas, inviting the viewer to take stock of the composition and alone, then delve into the history of the painting. After receiving Mexico's coveted FONCA (Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes) scholarship, I began researching and subsequently fictionalizing elements of Mexican history, particularly milestones from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s, blending past and present to inspire a sense of contemplation on where the Nation stands today. Death, culture and Mexican folklore come together along with notions of identity, nationalism and progress, with the aim of creating a completely new atmosphere that captures the viewer's attention in an almost superstitious way. There is a sensory obsession regarding the shapes, colors and textures at play within the works. A muted color palette and an anatomical approach allow me to experiment thematically while maintaining my artistic voice as well as experimenting with memory.

Gonzalo García