A collection of large works by Carlos G. Gòmez will be exhibited at the Rusteberg Art Gallery in the Rusteberg Building at The University of Texas at Brownsville, opening October 23rd at 6:30 P.M.
Location: Rusteberg Art Gallery in the Rusteberg Building
Opening Reception: October 23rd, 2007, 6:30 P.M.
Last day to view work: November 15th, 2007
Admission: $3.00 (Free to Patron of the Arts members. Student semester passes available for $5.00)
Gallery Hours: Monday through Thursday 10:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M., 2:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.
Closed: Friday, weekends and university holidays
Carlos G. Gòmez, a University of Texas at Brownsville professor, will be displaying his works October 23rd, 2007 through November 15th, 2007 at the new Rusteberg Art Gallery. The show will open on October 23rd at 6:30 P.M. Admission is $3.00. Semester passes are available for all UTB students for $5.00. Admission is free to all Patron of the Arts members.
Gòmez is an exceptional artist who has participated in numerous exhibitions nationally. Most notable of these exhibitions are “The 24th exhibition of Painting and Sculpture” in Barnegat Light, New Jersey and “the Second National Jury Exhibition in Washington DC.” His works have also been displayed in a number of prominent galleries and museums inclduing Galería Lorenzo Homar Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia, PA, Kellogg Gallery at California State Polytechnic in Pomona, CA, and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Tamaulipas.
He has also been featured in several publications such as “K-8 Spotlight on Art” by Robyn M. Turner and Rebecca L. Brooks and “Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art Work: Artist, Works, and Education” which is published by the Hispanic Research Center out of Arizona State University.
Artist’s Statement:
The hardest thing for me to do is to have a ready made artist statement that defines me in a general sense. As a person who has been painting for over thirty years, I have explored many ways by which one can apply paint on a support. I have dealt with a vast amount of concepts and themes and still feel that I am barley scratching the surface as a painter. I look for things that have to do with life and the things that matter. I often try to find humor in things and like to make subliminal social commentaries. Though, I do implement decorative patterns and fields in some of my artwork, I take care that the decorative character of the work is subordinate to the central message. Though I have developed an array of iconography over the years the usage of some iconography has been converted to icons that have lost their initial usage—this could well imply that I am mellowing and that the icons are more indicative of an artist’s identity as opposed to an artist trying to identify and connect with the public.
The use of color, texture and line has become important in my work and over time has endured. As a pure colorist, high contrast and screaming colors are my first choice and serve to attract the viewer. I have no respect for color and have learned over the years to follow not academic rules, but nature’s example for color. Like color, texture is a key element in my work whether it is implied or actual; it works with color to excite the eye and senses. These two elements are held in place by line or the contour of larger shapes in my work. These harmonization of elements at play are vital to most of my work and can be seen over the years in my canvas paintings.
On the flip-flop lives another artist who cares not and who wishes only to play. He is the paper artist. Ever since I did a serigraphy at Coronado Studio’s Serie Print Project in Austin, my fascination with the surface of paper has intensify and has opened a new way of thinking. It seems that with paper anything is possible and that there is no such thing as bad art. Collectively, the end results personify the true meaning of contemporary art and the long journey that art has taken over thousands of years.
I therefore conclude that the dichotomy of both the work on canvas and paper have only given me just a little more stress in trying to understand what I do—paint.