A. Andrew Gonzalez, of San Antonio, Texas, is an award-winning figurative artist whose work has been exhibited in several countries. Born on October 13, 1963, and raised in a creative family, Andrew’s art education is largely self-taught. His artist father, Anthony A. Gonzalez, encouraged his early interest in drawing and painting but gave him no formal training.
In the year 2000, Andrew Gonzalez had the distinct privilege to work closely with the well-known Fantastic Realist artist Ernst Fuchs in Monaco and Austria. Photos of the experience can be seen at L. Caruana’s website.
The paintings of Gonzalez are created with airbrushed acrylics on panel or canvas. Forms, values and highlighting are created by lifting pigment with an abrasive eraser, followed by the application of transparent layers of pigment. Influenced by idealism in the mystical, visionary and esoteric traditions, the artist describes his work as a contemporary Tantric or Transfigurative Art that explores the dramatic union of the sensual and spiritual. His work is akin to a revival of classical neoplatonic ideals centering on the figure as temple and vessel sublimed by transformative forces.