Wayne Gonzales is a self-described analytic painter whose work addresses the pliancy of photography and its relationship to history and memory. He culls source images online and from his personal collection, dissecting them to weigh the material and emotional layers within before reassembling their valued parts on canvas. The result is a stratified composition that may be recognizable only from a distance – Gonzales’ distinctive application of crosshatching suggests chiaroscuro when viewed from afar, the work shifting from abstraction towards a representative resolution. The viewing experience is akin to watching a crowd from some hidden vantage point, versus being an active participant.
When asked to describe Gonzales’ work, Emily Wilkerson, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs for Prospect New Orleans, stated “Between watching the view from his Lower East Side apartment transform with the city’s ever-burgeoning development, and tracking the ebb and flow of devastation and rejuvenation in his Southern birthplace, Gonzales has become interested in accentuating the psychological space between landmarks over time.”
Wayne Gonzales was born in 1957 in New Orleans. In 1985, he received a B.A. from the University of New Orleans. After a year of graduate school in fine art, he moved to New York in the late 1980s. He has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and his works are included in many prominent collections including the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Microsoft Art Collection. He lives and works in New York City.
