Raul Rene Gonzalez is an award-winning 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, work, identity, pop culture, science, 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.”

Born in 1981 in Houston, Texas and now based in San Antonio where the artist lives with wife and two daughters,  Gonzalez’ experiences living in two of the biggest metropolitan cities in the country influence nearly all his bodies of work—from detailed urban landscapes that pay homage to the workers who build and maintain our cities, to large-scale duct-tape and cardboard installations, to his paintings that document key features of San Antonio’s musical history displayed permanently in San Antonio’s City Hall.

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, Magna Cum Laude. He also attended Washington University in St. Louis School of Art for two years where he spent time mastering his drawing skills.  Raul is also the Director and a Resident Artist at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, an artist-run space in San Antonio. Raul also serves as an Art Advisor for Modern in San Antonio.

Gonzalez has been published in New American Paintings No. 162: West Issue, Harper’s Magazine, Southwest Contemporary Vol. 5: Collectivity & Collaboration, The American Oxford, Create! Magazine, and West Branch.  Gonzalez has also been featured or reviewed by Texas Monthly, Glasstire, The San Antonio Express News, La Prensa Texas, Spectrum News, The San Antonio Current, The Austin Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The Texas Observer, The Houston Press, and Whataburger.

Gonzalez has received numerous awards and grants, including a 2023 Houston Endowment Jones Artist Award, an Individual Artist Grant from the City of San Antonio, a 2022 Luminaria Artist Foundation Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant Award, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and a Dave Bown Projects Award of Excellence. In 2021 he was selected as San Antonio Museum of Art’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence and was selected as San Antonio Art League & Museum’s 2021 Artist of the Year.

Gonzalez’s work has been exhibited and featured widely throughout Texas and the United States. Since 2012, his work has been added to permanent collections such as the National Mexican Museum of Art (Chicago), the National Hispanic Cultural Center Art Museum (Albuquerque), Benson Latin American Collection (Austin), Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin), the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio), the University of Texas at San Antonio, Capital One Financial Services (Plano and San Antonio), the City of San Antonio, The Woodlands High School Art Trust, Artes de la Rosa (Fort Worth), the Whataburger Museum of Art, and The San Antonio Art League & Museum.