GONZALO FUENMAYOR

Gonzalo Fuenmayor is a Colombian artist based in Miami who works primarily in drawing. Fuenmayor’s work concerns the effects of modernization and progress in both natural environments and in the cultural environment of Latin America. Utilizing a palette of blacks, whites and grays, the artist explores “tropicalia” to examine how

Latin American symbolism and mythology are stereotypically displayed internationally. His work aims to not only denounce banalization, but also to understand its aesthetic mechanisms and cultural power.

ABOUT THE WORK:

Fuenmayor’s charcoal works are magically realistic, lush and delicate imaginaries that bridge a sensual tropicalia with fierce activism. Here, dozens of arrows pin an ornate, colonial style chair down to an ambiguous surface—are we looking at overgrown grass, or hair-covered skin? A visual interpretation of Magical Realism—a Latin American literary movement of the 1960s—emerges, as the fantastical becomes seemingly quotidian.