Raul Rene Gonzalez
Multi-Disciplinary: Illustrator, Mixed Media Artist, Multi-Disciplinary, Muralist, Painter, Visual Arts; Visual Arts: Illustrator, Mixed Media Artist, Multi-Disciplinary, Muralist, Painter, Visual Arts
Raul Rene Gonzalez is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates an astonishingly wide range of mediums and methods in his paintings, drawings, sculptures, clothing, murals, installations, live and recorded dance and other performance-based work. Largely autobiographical in nature, his work explores topics such as fatherhood, gender roles, labor, identity, pop culture and abstraction.
A prolific creator who finds inspiration anywhere and everywhere, Gonzalez is known by art critics, curators, and friends alike for his unwavering energy, ambition and experimentation that has led to the creation of several hundred unique works over the past decade. He truly lives his motto: “Werk. Hustle. Sleep. Repeat.”
A Houston native now based in San Antonio, Texas, Gonzalez’ experiences living in two of the biggest metropolitan cities in the country influence nearly all of his bodies of work—from detailed urban landscapes that pay homage to the workers who build and maintain our cities, to his wearable construction barrel suits, to his paintings that document key features of San Antonio’s musical history displayed permanently in City Hall.
Gonzalez’s work has been featured widely throughout Texas and the United States, averaging one major solo exhibition a year in addition to numerous group or two-person shows. His work is included in the permanent collections of the National Mexican Museum of Art (Chicago, IL), the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum (Albuquerque, NM), Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin, TX), the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX), the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the City of San Antonio, among others. He has been featured in Glasstire, Southwest Contemporary, Create! Magazine, The San Antonio Express News, La Prensa Texas, and The Oxford American.
Gonzalez has received artist grants from the Luminaria Artist Foundation, Sustainable Arts Foundation, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Dave Bown Projects, and the Surdna Foundation. In 2021 he was selected as San Antonio Museum of Art’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence and was named San Antonio Art League & Museum’s 2021 Artist of the Year.
Gonzalez earned his M.F.A. in Art from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.F.A. in painting from the University of Houston. Gonzalez lives in San Antonio with his wife and two daughters. In addition to his full-time art career, he manages Werk House SA, a short-term rental Airbnb property and is the Director at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, an artist-run space in San Antonio.