Mind Your Step

The themes in Gerardo Rosales’s work deal with oppression, often as a response to the casual and arbitrary nature of violence and insult, by making the act or word an object of play. Rosales states, “Violence has been one of the topics I have explored through my career as an artist. I have seen how in my home country of Venezuela violence has increased dramatically in recent years. Living in the U.S. for the last 13 years, I have also seen the dramatic impact of human suffering caused by acts of violence in their different forms—especially guns, terrorism and war. The artworks I have produced illustrate and respond to these acts of destructive behavior. My idea is to mix aggression with playfulness and to contrast the decorative and the innocent with brutality to reveal the harsh severity of my subject matter.”