Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian painter of magic realism. He was born in
Toronto,Ontario in 1959. He won the 2005 Governor General's Award in the
Children's Literature - Illustration category for Imagine a Day. He
is also an accomplished guitarist.
During his childhood, Gonsalves developed
an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age
twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he leaned perspective
techniques and began to do his first paintings and renderings of imagined
buildings.
After an introduction to artists Dalí and
Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The "Magic
Realism" approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions
of Escher came to be influences in his future work.
In his post college years, Gonsalves
worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe-l'œil murals and
theatre sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto
Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time.
Although Gonsalves' work is often
categorized as surrealistic, it differs due to the fact that the images
are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. Ideas are
largely generated by the external world and involve recognizable human
activities, using carefully planned illusionist devices. Gonsalves injects
a sense of magic into realistic scenes. As a result, the term "Magic
Realism" describes his work accurately. His work is an attempt to
represent human beings desire to believe the impossible.
Numerous individuals around the world,
corporations, embassies, and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves'
original work, and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at
Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, Decor Atlanta and Las Vegas, Fine Art
Forum, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Hudson River
Art Gallery, and Kaleidoscope Gallery.
