Gonzalo Fuenmayor’s exhibition “Empire” premieres at Dolby Chadwick Gallery
Author:Michelle KonstantinovskyAll this month, San Francisco art enthusiasts will have the opportunity to admire Gonzalo Fuenmayor’s exhibition, Empire, at Dolby Chadwick Gallery. Running from May 2 to June 1, the collection of charcoal-on-paper work epitomizes Fuenmayor’s exploration of themes like cultural assimilation, colonialization, and exoticization.
What’s new in Empire is Fuenmayor’s use of scale: several of the pieces displayed are monumental, a decision the artist says was influenced by the outsize works of Barnett Newman and Robert Longo. The large scale pieces called for Fuenmayor to employ a different technique, so while the work takes on a photorealistic appearance at a distance, up close, the marks are painterly and brushlike, a departure from his earlier tightly rendered compositions.
Fuenmayor was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, and lives and works in Miami, Florida. He earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 2000 and his MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2004. Fuenmayor has exhibited extensively across the United States, Latin America, and Europe, including in the Florida Prize 2018 at the Orlando Museum of Art; in a 2015 solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and as part of Caribbean Crossroads at the Queens Museum, New York, in 2012. This year, he will be resident at the South Florida Art Center.
Dolby Chadwick Gallery is located at 210 Post Street, Suite 205, San Francisco CA, 94108. For more information, visit dolbychadwickgallery.com.
