Tamara Gonzales

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What is my work about?

At its core my work is about visually communicating. About inspiring an audience to dream. To activate ones senses. To seduce through decoration and encourage a long gaze that will bring one into my world, which while deeply personal, eventually ends up being universal. It takes courage to consistently look for beauty, whatever that is for the individual. It’s a slippery subject (as it should be) but one that consistently challenges me. Every image holds both a dark and light story.  A serious message via an image morphs into high kitsch and vise-a-versa.  Which one in which situation communicates more clearly? Am I ever in control of that?  It’s really only after the work has left the studio and been engaged with that I get a truer sense of what my work is about. Then it flips and it’s changing again.

 

Artist Statement

For the last four years I have focused on spray painting through lace. In the beginning I used yard-sale or dollar-store tablecloths, doilies, and curtains from upstate New York. Now I am collecting lace whenever I travel. Different cultures still retain distinct patterns even though most lace is currently produced in China.

Lace allows me to utilize pattern like different brushes while spray paint maintains an economy of surface. Especially important to me is that inherent in the different lace patterns are many of my prime interests; Baroque churches; rose windows; altars; excess; gaudiness; veiling; and craft. Along with an intensity of color and pattern I favor the ambiguous moments that occur when the patterning begins to blur. I find that I am often painting blind and it is not until I lift the lace up from the canvas that I can see my drawing. This makes the painting act very physical and whole bodied. Most recently an opened cardboard box has become a stencil I use to create shapes that have morphed into totem figures. For the first time my palette has shifted to include browns and earth tones.

I consider myself an abstract painter. So while I am using a figure that lends to a narrative, I choose to stay fixed with the non-representational concerns of painting and a shallow frontal space.

 

CV

Tamara Gonzales

b. 1959 Madera, CA. Lives and works in Brooklyn
www.tamaragonzales.com

Solo Exhibitions
2014                
Tamara Gonzales, Sometimes (works of art), NY, NY

2013              
Unicorn Kittens, Shoot The Lobster, NY, NY

2012                
Untitled, Norte Maar, Brooklyn. NY

Group Exhibitions
2014
Sargent’s Daughters, Sargent’s Daughter, NY, NY
Awkward, organized by Jeremy Willis, Brooklyn, NY
Paintings Differ, or Vary, organized by Talia Shulze & Peter Shear, BOS, Brooklyn, NY
Space Heater, Curated by Andy Cross, Harbor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Geometry Poems, Organized by Katherine Mojzsis,Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2013
Caving, Curated by Yevgenia Baras, Honey Ramka, Brooklyn NY
Snail Salon, Curated by Adrianne Rubenstein, Regina Rex Gallery, Brooklyn NY
Come Together: Surviving Sandy Year 1, Curated by Phong Bui, Industry City, Brooklyn, NY
Draw Gym, Organized by Brian Belott, 247365 & KNOW MORE GAMES , Brooklyn, NY
Pinkpurple, NYPL Art in the Corner Room, Organized by Arezoo Moseni
To Be A Lady, Organized by Jason Andrews, Sundarum Tagore Gallery, Singapore Invitational
Lat 41° 7’ N., Long. 72° 19 W, Organized by Bob Nickas, Martos Gallery, East Marion, NY
Swing State, Curated by Jane Kim, Pop-Up Location, NY, NY
Chiaroscuro, Curated by JJ Manfred & Steve Rivera, Novella Gallery, NY, NY
Hello Darling, Curated by Patrick Berran, SOUTHFIRST, Brooklyn ,NY

2012
Swamp, Curated by Kari Adelaide, Poe Cottage, Bronx, NY
Pillow Talk, Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY
The Escape From The Banal Everday Life To The World Of The Ideal, Curated by Brooke Moyse, NURTUREart, Brooklyn, NY
Art Blog Art Blog Love, Curated by Stephen Truax, One River Gallery, Englewood, NJ
To Be A Lady, Curated by Jason Andrews, Ave of The Americas Art Gallery, NY, NY
Pig Party, Organized by Gina Beavers, New York City, NY, NY
Epiphanic Glow, Curated by Brad Hajzak, Geoffrey Young Gallery, Great Barrington,MA
Sweet Distemper, Organized by Isaac Lyles, Derek Eller Gallery, NY. NY
Creature From The Blue Lagoon, Organized by Bob Nickas, Bridgehampton, NY
The Final Frontier, The Atlantic Conference, Brooklyn, NY
Wavers, Curated by EJ Hauser and Rob Nadeau, Brooklyn, NY
Dependent Art Fair, with James Fuentes Gallery
What I Know, Curated by Jason Andrews NYCAMS, NY, NY
Special Blend, Curated by Chris Martin, Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2011
Ritual Aesthetics, Organized by Project Report, Thompkins Projects, Brooklyn, NY
Freestyle, Pop-Up show in Joe Ballwegs Studio, Brooklyn NY
Surrealism, Factory Fresh, Brooklyn, NY curated by Jason Andrew with Ali Ha
Temporary Antumbra Zones, Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Williamsburg 2000, Art 101, Brooklyn, NY

2010
Wall-to-Wall, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Please Jump Around in Here, Curated by Jessica Duffet, Storefront, Brooklyn, NY
Works on Paper, Big, Small, & Casual, Brooklyn, NY
No Freekouts, St. Cecelia’s Convent, Brooklyn, NY
979 to MF Golden Age, Party Expo, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Schlatt, Fortress of Solitude, Brooklyn, NY
Dance Ghost, Vaudeville Park, Brooklyn, NY

2009
Spun, Monkey Town, Brooklyn, NY
Chunky Monkey, Curated by Katherine Bradford, Red Flagg, NY, NY

2008
Party at Phong’s House,Janet Kurnatowski, Brooklyn, NY
Open Studios, iaab, Basel, Switzerland

2007
Orpheous, Curated by Phong Bui, PS1 Long Island City, NY
99¢, Jersey City Museum & Victory Hall, Jersey City, N.J
Supermarket, the:artists:network. NY, NY

2006
!@#$%, the:artists:network. NY, NY

2005
Dry Goods,The AUK, Hamden, NY
Temperature, the:artists:network, NY, NY

2004
Self-ish, Gallery Onetwentyeight, NY, NY
mace2, the:artists:network, NY, NY

2003
Lust ,Fe Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
Flora and Fauna, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, NY, NY

2002
Window Shopping, Eyewash, Brooklyn, NY
New Works, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India,

2001
Made in Brooklyn, Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY

2000
A Few of my Favorite Things, Cheryl Pelavin Fine Art, NY, NY

1999
Om, Curated by Joe Fyfe, Dorsky Gallery, NY, NY
Painting III, N3 Project Space, Brooklyn, NY

1997
New York Drawers, Gasworks Gallery, London, UK
Current/Undercurrent, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY,
Sex & Spirituality, Ridge Street Gallery, NY, NY,

1996
Cool Girls,PS 122, NY, NY,
Drawing Show,Rupert Goldsworthy Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Shifting Identities,CB’s Gallery, NY, NY

1995
Other Rooms, Ronald Feldman Gallery, NY, NY
Visiting Angels, Gold Bar, NY, NY

 

Curatorial
2014
Two River, One River Gallery, Englewood. NJ

2013
Donut Muffin, with Jessica Duffett, Dorsky Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Play Button, Art in the Windows, NYPL Mid-Manhattan

Residencies
2012,  CCA Andratx , Majorca, Spain

2008,  iaab; Basel, Switzerland

2001,  Sanskriti Kendra; New Delhi, India

1999,  Yaddo; New York

1997,  Vermont Studios Center; Vermont

 

Lectures
2013
University of Knoxville — on my work
New York Public Library— Altars, Temples, and Day-of–the-Dead.

 

Education

2005 BA Liberal Arts—Vermont College

1990 AAS Fine Arts—Parsons School of Design