About Us
CONGRATULATIONS IACA CYCLE #12
MINI-GRANT RECIPIENT, RIGOBERTO A. GONZALEZ!
Click here to learn about our other Cycle #12 artist grant winner, Devan Horton.
Click here to learn about Cycle #3 non-profit grant winner, Expressive Path, Inc.
Congratulations to Rigoberto on a successful grant application!
The following is his grant application:
"The border is an area I am fascinated with and find rich with subject matter and have decided to make it the focus of my work. It is a region where there is the confluence of two cultures, where the river not so much divides but unites. Most of my adult life I have spent in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico on the border. I am a painter working primarily on large scale mural size oil paintings since 1994. The theme running through my paintings is a merger of the visual vernacular of the Baroque and current border issues affecting Mexico and the United States – families whose lives have been affected by social economic conflicts such as immigration policies and the war on drugs. It is the dramatic lives and stories of everyday individuals from border communities whose narratives inspire me to capture their stories on canvas. For several years the NEWS media has been reporting stories on the rising numbers of families especially children immigrating to the U.S. and the escalating violence on the border between the U.S. and Mexico. This is too big a story to report through raw journalism. It is important for me as an artist to address contemporary concerns and create a visual record portraying these events with an artistic sensibility. Drawing inspiration from the Mexican muralists, I believe that painting can evoke an authentic aesthetic experience that conveys meaning in people's lives and work as a catalyst for change.
I am currently in the process of creating narrative canvases depicting contemporary concerns on the U.S./Mexican border. The award will be allocated for purchasing artist materials such as brushes, paints, and stretcher bars.
I was born in the border town of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico across the border from Mcallen, Texas. It was the devaluation of currency in Mexico which brought my family here in the early eighties. Frequently families have to make the difficult decision to leave behind their lives in one country and make the perilous journey in search for the ever more distant and vague American dream. My figurative narrative tableaux depict such journeys."
You may be the next grant winner! Click here to apply.
There is no specific type of artist that we focus on or primarily support. Creative expression comes in a wide variety of artistic disciplines and genres. We are looking for passion and excellence in your craft. Tell us why your work is important to you and how you hope it will impact others.
Copyright © Rigoberto A. Gonzalez
Where Eagles Soar (Isaiah 40:31)
La Guia (The Guide) ~ Painting of three immigrants life size figures crossing the river into the United States behind them we see the shanty towns and mountains of Ciudad Juarez Mexico. The painting depicts a girl guiding the two immigrants on their perilous journey.
La Ribera del Diablo (The Devil's Riverside) ~ The painting depicts a group of immigrants on the river's edge and the many obstacles they face as they are about to cross from the Mexican side to the United States.
La Llorona ~ The painting represents La llorona. A ghost story one tells children to make them go to sleep or to be better behaved it also speaks about immigration. She holds one child firmly in her arms and anther tugs at her shirt as she has fallen in the water.
