Rigoberto Gonzalez's art is rooted in the style of the old masters of the baroque period, yet his subject matter is very much about current life on the Texas-Mexico border.
"I'm trying to put a contemporary twist on it," Gonzalez said during an interview at the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum. "Providing subject matter that is of this time to make it relevant."
Gonzalez's exhibit "Barocco en La Frontera (Baroque on the Border)" is hanging at HAHM through June 15.
In an art world dominated by abstract styles, mixed media, performance pieces and anything but a realistic approach, Gonzalez's work sticks out.
"You can't just keep doing the same thing like still lifes and flowers," he said. "You've got to make it stand up against abstract. That's why I'm trying to do this type of subject matter."
While the majority of the works in the show are figurative in nature, one wall is dedicated to pieces straight out of today's headlines.
They deal with the violence inherent in drug trafficking. Four of these paintings are simply titled "Degollado (Decapitated)" and each features a head sitting bloodless on a table.
The centerpiece of the wall is "Contrabando y Traicion (Smuggling and Betrayal)" a large painting portraying three men attacking a fourth in the countryside at night. On the horizon glitter the lights of a nearby town. Gonzalez said portrays any manner of ways a drug deal can go bad. Did the man being attacked betray the others somehow or are they simply killing him rather than pay him for a drug shipment? The betrayal of the title can come from either side, the artist said. The lights could be those of any town near the border.
"The theme of violence has always been present in art, particularly in the baroque period," Gonzalez said. The artist said it is easy to compare his work to any number of pieces produced back then especially those that deal with the suffering of saints or tales from ancient mythology. Gonzalez said, as in the baroque tradition, his is a more aesthetic depiction of violence - a cleaned up version - rather than a totally documentary vision of it.
Gonzalez, 34, was born in Reynosa, Mexico, and is a 1992 graduate of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School. In 1999, he received a bachelor's of fine arts from the University of Texas Pan American and graduatecum laude in 2004 with a masters of fine art degree from the New York Academy of Art. He currently teaches art at Harlingen South High School and UTPA.
Originally scheduled to hang until the end of June, "Barocco" will come down on June 15. Gonzalez will be leaving the Valley a few days later for a yearlong artist in residency program in Roswell, N.M.
Patricia Morales, the HAHM museum coordinator, said Gonzalez figure drawings in particular have a timeless, classic feel.
"I'm very proud that we're displaying his work here," she said.
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