Cinco Preguntas with Raul Rene Gonzalez: San Antonio-based Contemporary Artist

Raul Rene Gonzalez was born and raised in inner-city Houston, just ten minutes from downtown. Throughout his adulthood, he lived in various parts of the city, and in August 2012, he moved to San Antonio to pursue his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio. After obtaining his degree, he intended to move back to Houston, but he and his wife found a house that was perfect for them, and they decided to make San Antonio their home.

Gonzalez is a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates a 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, science and abstraction.

We spoke with Raul about his recent work, how he promotes himself, his paintings in a recent movie, how he has gained opportunities to show his work outside of Texas, and what he does to recharge.

MiSA:  Please tell us about your recent works and the topics that they cover.

RRG:  I’m currently working on multiple projects. I just completed a commission for the McNay Art Museum, which will be part of an upcoming 2025 group exhibition. All I can share now is that my artwork focuses on Negro League baseball. I am really excited about this work and I’ll sure you’ll hear more about that soon.

Right now, I’m focusing most of my time on a new painting portrait series, which features primarily fathers alongside their children. The individuals I’m painting are people I’ve met throughout my career as an artist. Most are from San Antonio and Houston, as well as California. This new series will be exhibited at the Carver Center in 2025, as part of my solo exhibition “Perspectives”, which runs May 15 – June 20, 2025, with an opening reception on Thursday, May 15, 6-9pm. 

In addition to the portraits, I am also creating ballpoint pen drawings that focus on construction, labor, and nature. I’m revisiting an older series in which I drew on repurposed reflective tape taken from traffic barrels. The drawings will all be four inches tall with varying lengths in width, ranging from eight to 12 inches long. At the same time, I am also creating more drawings on concrete that depict ideas of labor and nature. 

Some of the work I’m creating between now and December will be included in my solo exhibition “Somewhere Between Work and Play”, which runs December 13, 2024 – January 4, 2025, at Clamp Light Studios & Gallery. This will mark my end at Clamp Light, where I served as the Director for most of the past four years. Coincidentally, this will be my first solo exhibition at the gallery.

MiSA:  How much time do you spend on promoting your art versus producing your art?

RRG: I guess that really varies. The amount of time that goes into my art practice changes every week. My wife and I have two daughters so there’s always the parenting-work balance. However, of the time I have to focus on my art, I would say on average, it’s a 60-40 split.  60% is making artwork. 40% is promoting and all other admin stuff, because sometimes just being really organized is a great way to promote your work and capabilities.

MiSA:  Your paintings are in the film, "Say A Little Prayer" starring Luis Fonzi, which opens on November 22, 2024. How did you get connected with the film and which paintings were used?

RRG:  I met the writer and one of the producers in 2022 when they were in San Antonio site scouting. They were in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, and I happened to be hosting regular gallery hours at Clamp Light around that time. They came in, and we talked for a long time about the movie. They considered using the gallery and studio spaces, but there were going to be too many logistic issues.
 
They mentioned there was going to be a big need for art since the movie focuses around a relationship between a gallery owner and a curator/artist. We exchanged information and I emailed them a few times offering to help in any way possible. I suggested I could help them find artists whose work would fit the film. I also sent them samples of my artwork since they mentioned they were going to curate at least three works of art specifically for the film. After a few weeks, they reached out and commissioned me to create an original painting titled "La Reina" for a specific scene near the end of the film. The painting was not based on any specific image or photo. I had to create the entire composition based on a description of the painting included in the script. 

They also used four additional paintings of mine for various scenes. During the screening, of the four additional paintings, I only saw two of them along with the commissioned portrait; however, all five paintings are listed in the film's credits. I will be publicly exhibiting the painting "La Reina" as part of my upcoming December 2024 solo show at Clamp Light.

MiSA:  You have been included in exhibitions in various places outside of Texas. Can you give us any insight as to how those opportunities came your way?

RRG:  Many of the shows where I’ve exhibited out of Texas have come from open-calls that I’ve applied to. I honestly look for opportunities where I know the subject matter of my artwork fits the theme. In a few cases, that wasn’t the case but for the most part, it’s true. 

There was one instance where an old connection gave me a future opportunity. During grad school, I met an art professor who was in town for a conference. She visited my studio and about four years later, she invited me to Miami University Ohio where I gave an artist talk, taught a soft-sculpture workshop, and had a solo exhibition. She told me she continued to follow my work and wanted to bring my ideas to her community. 

In general, most of my opportunities come from relationships I’ve established over the years. Equally important is just being ready for when opportunities present themselves. There are a lot of ways artists can exhibit their work outside their own city or state. Some can be costly and might be worth it, while others may just end up feeling like another line on the resume.

MiSA: On the days when things are slow, what do you do to recharge and where are your favorite places to spend downtime and unwind in San Antonio?

RRG:  I can’t necessarily say there are slow days. I have a backlog of projects and ideas that are always waiting to be explored. However, when my deadlines are far enough apart, I always allow myself to have time to recharge and unwind. Throughout the week, I fit in a few hours here and there xeriscaping and landscaping our home. I tend to all of our indoor and outdoor plants as well. I also try to make it a point to go to concerts throughout the year. That’s one of the ways I feel like I recharge the most. Music hits so much harder when you’re in a large room with a whole bunch of people dancing and singing along to the same songs.

One of my favorite places is Friedrich Wilderness Park. I love how it’s not a paved trail and has a range of easy to challenging trails. When we first moved to San Antonio and lived off I-10, I used to go every Sunday morning and hike for 2 or 3 hours. Lately, I started going more regularly, but now as a family.

To learn more about Raul Rene Gonzalez's work, visit his website or follow him on Instagram.