Rigoberto Gonzalez’s Baroque-inspired paintings explore contemporary issues affecting the Texas-Mexico border region. The figures in his paintings, drawn from both historic and contemporary corridos (or Mexican folk ballads), portray and inform life along the border—the brutality associated with drug cartels, tales from folklore, and moments of domestic tranquility. By merging centuries-old European vernacular with contemporary narratives, a historical allusion is drawn between the propensity of harsh violence in religious and secular paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries with the intense brutality in some border regions today. Depicting past and present, current events and historic folklore, Gonzalez’s canvases serve as portals to a people who struggle to balance the beauty and violence of daily living.

Gonzalez was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He received a BFA degree from The University of Texas Pan American in 1999 and a MFA degree from The New York Academy of Art in 2004. His work is currently on exhibit in solo exhibitions at galleries and museums in both Texas and Mexico.

You may view a video on Rigoberto Gonzalez at Baroque on the Border.

This exhibition is presented in partnership with the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. For more information on these programs, please visit their websites at: www.rair.org and www.roswellamoca.org