Artist Statement

My work reflects past and present personal history. Themes encompassing separation, travel, transplanting, integration, belonging, and immediate surroundings are explored through visual imagery. The work is also open ended; I invite the viewer to bring their own associations to the narratives and contradictions I have created.

To give a brief history of my background; my grandmother was born in Spain and immigrated to Cuba when she was 24 years old. There she met and married my grandfather, a first generation Cuban of Spanish parents. During the beginning of the Castro regime many Cuban children were sent away from their families in an effort to protect them. Know as “Pedro Pan”, many children (mostly boys) were sent to the United States. Of their three children, my grandparents sent their 8-year-old son with family friends who were moving to Miami. I was born in Cuba in 1972. At the age of 12 I immigrated to Panama with my parents and sister, who was born with a severe physical handicap. My mother and sister were eventually granted a humanitarian visa from the US for medical treatment. After 4 long years in Panama, my father and I were finally reunited with them in Miami. When I finished High School I moved to New York City to study art. I lived there for 7 years and met my wife, a second generation American of German and Lithuanian ancestry. I began to explore themes of immigration, belonging and integration in my artwork.

Process

For the “Wall Hanging Series” I begin by creating shapes of color and images on unstretched cloth and raw canvas pieces. As images and shapes begin to take form I turn and cut fragments, collage them, and stitch edges or corners to other pieces. While working within this process the images re-invent themselves. My personal associations become stronger throughout this constantly changing evolution. The unstretched cloth and canvases give me freedom to further explore composition, shape and scale of the pieces. The fragments preserve their creases and folds, freely hanging, creating shadows, lines and dimensional layers.

The works on paper are created digitally. Working with digital images expands the flexibility to explore endless possibilities in composition, layering, etc.

gerardo gonzalez-quevedo