Dark,
somber and foreboding, Arthur Gonzalez's works encourage
serious deliberation and reflection on the relationship between
personal concerns and world issues. Raw in form, lacking
in smoothness and rough in finish, the ceramic sculptures
give glimpses of a conversation or a contemplation in progress.
Gonzalez's creations of ceramic and found objects reveal
visions and feelings that are not polished but ongoing processes
of gyrating thoughts and churning emotions that threaten
to erupt into reality and consciousness to defy the fantasy
of a peaceful experience.
Three distinct phases have influenced
the direction of Gonzalez's artistic career and expression.
First, as a graduate student, at the University of California
at Davis, under Robert Arneson and Manuel Neri, he entered
the Master of Fine Arts program as a figurative sculptor
during the late 1970'safter completing an Master of Arts
in painting at the California State University of Sacramento.
His second phase was as an artist in residence at the University
of Georgia, Athens from 1981 to 1982. Gonzalez's attitudes
towards art changed through his exposure to a creative life-style
that blended music and visual art. The third phase of Gonzalez's
career was through his involvement in the early 1980's East
Village Art Scene, in New York City, which fast-forwarded
public recognition of his work. |