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Roberto Jose Gonzalez, is a Visual and Performance Artist in San Antonio, Texas. He has been concentrating full time on developing his repertoire in these dual mediums. His residence and studio is in the far Westside of San Antonio ( ETJ ) in the near hill country of Mico, Texas close to Medina Lake.
He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Painting from Trinity University, 1978 and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management from The University of the Incarnate Word, 1980.
He was an exhibiting member with the Pintores Chicano art group, Con-Safo in the early seventies under the guidance of the esteemed painter Mel Casas. This early formative experience guided the scale and direction of his work.
He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions during the previous decades. Some of those exhibition venues include Centro de Artes, The Carver, The Witte, SAMA, Blue Star (S.A., TX.,) MexicArte (Austin, TX,) Polyforum Siquieros (MX, D.F.,) El Museo del Barrio (N.Y.C, N.Y.,) and Plaza de La Raza (L.A., CA.,)
A majority of his work during those decades have been large-scale abstract paintings dealing with the process of change, implicit form, and color memory. In recent years, the image of the body has surfaced along with other representational and vernacular cultural iconography.
At the beginning of this decade, he has completed a large series of paintings in homage of the rain gods divined from the ancient Olmec people. These rain gods are “Xiac,” “Tlaloc,” “Atl,” and “Cocijo.” These works delve into the ancient Olmecan spirit and iconography of historical divinities still revered to this day in Mexico and Central America. He is currently working on a new series based on the Zapotec rain deity, “Cocijo.”
In 1974, he began creating performance art, having been influenced by the European performance art movements of the Sixties and Seventies. His performance work was based on the street as well as in semi-theatrical spaces. Gonzalez was one of the first Chicano performance artists. His recent performance work has been organized around the body as bridge, the birth canal being the first bridge, and the primal performance artist as shaman. Today, he is also Artistic Director for “Los Olvidados,” an improvisational performance art group celebrating native Mexican Indian music.
He worked as an Artist in Residence for ten years teaching visual art and percussion. As a percussionist, he has trained extensively in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil and in numerous private classes, masters’ classes and workshops here in San Antonio, Texas and in New York City, N.Y. He has performed throughout Texas, Arizona, Mexico and, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
He has taught adults in Continuing Education classes, in private classes and workshops. For ten years, as an Artist - in - Residence he taught children in several of the poorest schools in San Antonio, interfacing with many traumatized and neglected children. It was in this phase of teaching that the transformative power of music and the visual arts became evident. Creativity helps a child be witnessed and have hope, that they are here, present, and not invisible. They can create meaning for their lives through the arts.
He worked as a fine arts curator and arts administrator, for over a decade at the City of San Antonio’s Carver Center in San Antonio. The esteemed Carver Director Jo Long mentored Gonzalez during that time. He has curated over two hundred local, regional and national art exhibitions for the Artist Alliance Gallery, The Carver, The City of San Antonio and The Blue Door Gallery. Being a curator exposed him to the full range of artists working today. Notable exhibitions featured the work of, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Roy de Carava, Jacob Lawrence, Adrian Piper, and James Van Der Zee to name a few.
While at the Carver Center his additional duties included public relations, graphic design, performing arts season programming, educational classes / outreach and community outreach. In 1995, with the City of San Antonio he designed the exhibition “Emerging from the Shadows, One City’s Perspective on Homelessness.” In 1986, he was bestowed the Pemerintah Propinsi Daerah Tingkat I Jawa Barat Award by the Indonesian Government for his assistance as a cultural ambassador. He was a juror for the Dallas Museum of Art, Dozier Travel Grant from 1993 through 1996. In 1983-84 he was the Gallery Director for the Artist's Alliance of San Antonio.
Notable Visual Arts teachers included Robert Warren, Mel Casas, Robert Tiemann, Frank Hein, Mark Pritchett, and Robert Fainter.
Music instruction has included classes with the late Babatunde Olatunji, Patato Valdez and Max Roach. Other esteemed masters he has studied with are Mestre Jelon Viera, Mestre King, Mestre Ninha, Mestre Bira, Mestre Chiam, Mestre Lalo, Baba Chuck Davis, Mestre Ibo, Mestre Osei, Yaya Diallo and Poncho Sanchez. Also, He has taken Master classes with artists of Las Ballets Africains, Jean Leon Destine of Jean Leon Destine Dance Company, artists of Raganiketan Manipuri Music and Dance Ensemble, artists of Muntu Dance Theater, and artists of Grupo Garifuna.
Gonzalez has performed with many ensembles celebrating the music and dance of the African Diaspora. Among these performing groups were the African music and dance groups N’Fougon (1994,) Daughters of African Descent, and Anike. Also, he has performed with The Presidents, Canto Brasil, Todo Mundo, Carnaval de San Anto, Martin Serere, Ile Bahia de San Antonio, Las Monas, Academicos do Opera, and currently Los Olvidados and LAZA.
He was Artistic Director for Ile Bahia de San Antonio during the 1990’s. Ile Bahia was a 501-C3 non Profit organization that performed Afro-Brazilian Capoeira, folkloric music and dance. Ile Bahia performed with the San Antonio Symphony at the Majestic Theater and throughout Texas at numerous local and regional festivals for nearly a decade.
Of note, Gonzalez has performed at the 1997 Hispanic Heritage Awards at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. with George Cisneros and Ensemble. The group was also featured on an HBO TV special on Hispanic History Month that same year. He has performed in Mexico, Arizona and throughout Texas at numerous festivals like the Waco Arts Festival, the Houston International Festival and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
Gonzalez has released music CD’s entitled “Mezclaritas,” “Xiac,” “Tlaloc,” “Atl,” and his newest release “Cocijo.” “Mezclaritas” features his work with the Brazilian Pandiero grounded in new funk riffs and unusual mixtures of the traditional with the new. His other CD’s, “Xiac,” “Tlaloc,” “Atl” and “Cocijo” explore Native Mexican Indian instrumentation with new flute, drum and synthesizer soundings. All five CD’s are available on iTunes and other online stores.
Roberto Jose Gonzalez
List of Exhibitions
1974 - Current
Group Exhibition: Con / Safo - Chicano Literature Symposium
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
October – November 1974
Group Exhibition: Con / Safo - Mexican- American Literary Festival
Assumption Seminary
San Antonio, Texas
December 1974
Group Exhibition: Con / Safo - Padres National Congress
St. Mary’s University
February 1975
Group Exhibition: 45th Annual Artists Exhibition San Antonio Art League
Koehler House, San Antonio, Texas
April 1975
Solo Exhibition: One – Man Exhibition - Laurie Auditorium Gallery
Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas
February 1977
Solo Exhibition: One – Man Exhibition - Carver Gallery
Carver Cultural Center
November 1978 - January 1979
Solo Exhibition: One – Man Exhibition - San Antonio Museum of Modern Art
San Antonio, Texas
July 1979
Group Exhibition: Visones Nuevas en Tejas New Visions in Texas
Witte Museum San Antonio Museum Association
San Antonio, Texas
May - June 1979
Duo Exhibition: “Starker Schock” with Elizabeth Chase Gutierrez
Shown – Davenport Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
February - March 1982
Group Exhibition: Expo de San Antonio en Mexico Polyforum Siquieros
Mexico City, Mexico
February – March 1982
Group Exhibition: New Trends in Yanaguana
Artist Alliance Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
January 1983
Group Exhibition: The Canadian Club Hispanic Art Tour
El Museo del Barrio, New York City
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas
Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, California
August - December 1984
Group Exhibition: L.A. Heights Alternative Space Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
May 1985
Group Exhibition: Martinez, Mijangos, Taylor, and Gonzalez - Gallery 21
San Antonio, Texas
March 1986
Group Exhibition: SAMA Open / ‘86 San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio, Texas
July 1986
Group Exhibition: Frame of Mind Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
November 1986
Group Exhibition: “Influences”
San Antonio Museum of Art
San Antonio, Texas
March 1987
Group Exhibition: Alumni Exhibition - Trinity University
San Antonio, Texas
March - April 1990
Group Exhibition: “Art to Heart” / Art Inc.
San Antonio, Texas
February 1992
Group Exhibition: A Celebration of Latino Artists / Tobin Estate
San Antonio, Texas
August 1992
Group Exhibition: Second Blue Star Red Dot Exhibition
San Antonio, Texas
November 1992
Group Exhibition: Blue Star Eight - Annual Artist Exhibitions
San Antonio, Texas
July 1993
Group Exhibition: Third Blue Star Red Dot Exhibition
San Antonio, Texas
November 1993
Group Exhibition: L’Age d’Or – Evans, Avila, Gonzalez
Blue Door Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
December 1995
Group Exhibition: “Collaborations” / The Artists Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
August 1996
Solo Exhibition: “Porteria y Flor” / Luna Notte Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
November 1996
Group Exhibition: “Contemporary Words” / The Artists Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
July 1997
Duo Exhibition: McDougal / Gonzalez – Blue Door Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
July 1997
Duo Exhibition: Avila / Gonzalez - The Carver
San Antonio, Texas
2010
Group Exhibition: S.A.M.O.M.A. Lives – R Gallery
San Antonio, Texas
2012
Solo Exhibition: Atl
The Carver Gallery
November 2013
Group Exhibition: Contemporary Latino Art
El Corazon de San Antonio
Educational and Cultural Arts Center TAMUSA
May – August 2014
Duo Exhibition Arispe / Gonzalez Salon Sanchez -2015
Solo Exhibition: Roberto Gonzalez: Sacred Waters
Curated by Dr. Ruben C. Cordova
Centro de Artes TAMUSA
March - June 2016
Group Exhibition: The Color of Blind
San Antonio Public Library
June 2016
Solo Exhibition: Roberto Jose Gonzalez Exhibition / Hispanic Heritage Month
St. Philips College
September – October 2016
Group Exhibition: The Other Side of the Alamo
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
February 2018
Solo Exhibition: Roberto Jose Gonzalez
American Cancer Society Cattle Baron’s Gala
October 2018
Group Exhibition: Toma Mi Corazon
La Pena Cultural Center – Austin, Texas
February 2019
Group Exhibition: The Day of the Dead in Art
Centro de Artes
October 2019
Group Exhibition: Hasta el Hueso – Mario C. Garza & Roberto Jose Gonzalez
Freight Gallery
November 2019
Group Exhibition: Toma Mi Corazon
La Pena Cultural Arts Center – Austin, Texas
February 2020
Roberto Jose Gonzalez
Artist Statement
All of my creative energies serve to bring me back into the body. Sensation is the language of the body and I use it, to deepen my creativity. Connection down from the mind into the body is a return path to sensation. It is also a way of bonding with the ancestors. Forging a sentience with their nature means discerning their implicit communications from many centuries and millennia past.
I question how to restore those attachments of consciousness through such a long span of time and space? How to bond with my grandfathers’ grandfather? How to see with Olmec eyes? Paint with Maya blue? Those implicit dreams have their translation through their body, via their sculptures and paintings. No words, just images of their bodies, warriors and wrestlers, mothers and children, infants and shamans.
I understand that the temporality of my life and art at its core is illusory. In my creative process I touch the stream of consciousness that some day soon I will merge with. It becomes a conscious integration of the creative unconscious. I seek elemental form articulated with ancient knowledge. If there is a fight, it is with the wolves of emptiness and immobility of ignorance.
Who my ancestors were was lost to their illusions. What art my ancestors created “is” their medium of consciousness, as mine is. However illusory my artistry is and for however long it will exist only serves to implicitly communicate a timeless attachment. It is through their work that I am connected to them and it is through my work that others will bond with me. I hold art as a medium of enduring revelation from the soma of the ancestors to my body.
My body resonates with theirs. The spirit within is an echo oscillating their chant. Their gesture, breath and fire of consciousness glimmers at my core in visceral reverence. It is not about finding meaning in their soma, meaning is unimportant. That I can free my consciousness from identification with the known opens an artery of connection to our ancient elders.
I seek to open and renew my eyes and heart, balancing who I am in this moment with who I was three thousand years ago. When I play my teponatzle, the sacred breath and song of the ancestors skims across my lips. I listen with my body as they listened, a consonance of veneration.