By Paula Nino Kehr | Visit Houston | September 19, 2019.
With its world-class museums, galleries, and diverse art scene, Houston is a welcoming place for artists from all over the world, offering visitors a chance to see unique art that they may not see elsewhere. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we spoke to four Latin American artists who call Houston home.
Gerardo Rosales, Visual Artist (Excerpt)
When Venezuelan artist Gerardo Rosales came to Houston 20 year ago, he wasn’t expecting to stay long, but the city captivated him. His upcoming exhibit, Undercover, opens at the Galveston Arts Center on Oct. 12.
What led you to explore issues of class, gender and race in your art?
I’ve been exploring this theme since I lived in Venezuela. When I came to Houston, I was very interested in the issue of immigration because I saw that many of the people who came to the United States, especially from Latin America, looking for a better life in some ways replicated the life conditions they had in the countries they came from. So I became interested in opening up a dialogue about that reality.
I started researching the conditions of people living in extremes. I wanted to find a character who spoke to me about a privileged social group, and I thought of Marie Antoinette. I was very interested in the hairdos. The more intricate and elaborate the hairdos, the more time these people had. On the other hand, I thought of an object that connected to the less privileged and I thought of a mop and the work that many people who are less privileged come here to do. I transformed the mop, took it to the salon metaphorically, and transformed them with the hairdos of Marie Antoinette. …