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DALLAS: The Latino
Cultural Center presents Baroque on the Border: The Paintings of
Rigoberto A. González, an exhibit
of large scale paintings and smaller-scale works that juxtapose Baroque-style
painting techniques with imagery of the violence that has engulfed the United
States-Mexico border over the past ten years. The exhibit will be on view at
the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak, Dallas, TX 75204 from November 15, 2013 to January 10,
2014. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
González describes his storytelling as visual
corridos, or Mexican folk ballads
about oppression and social issues. The paintings take a first-person
perspective rather than observing from a distance. González seeks to place the viewer in the
midst of the emotionally supercharged scenes that relate the consequences of
drug warfare. This unique blend of past
and present, European and Mexican, movement and stillness, raises the questions
about the violence, the terror and raises questions about who the victims are
along the Mexican border.
After spending two years in graduate school at
The New York Academy of Art, González moved back to his hometown of Reynosa,
Tamaulipas, Mexico and followed news coverage of beheadings due to cartel violence.
The images reminded him of the 17th century Baroque paintings of the
beheading of John the Baptiste and David holding the head of Goliath. González draws particular inspiration from the
works of the Italian artist Caravaggio and the Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera.
By merging centuries-old European vernacular with contemporary narratives,
González draws an historical allusion between the propensity for harsh violence
in religious and secular paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries and the
intense brutality of some border regions today.
About the Latino Cultural Center
The
Latino Cultural Center is a division of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural
Affairs. Established in 2003, the LCC’s mission is to serve as a regional
catalyst for the preservation, development and promotion of Latino and Hispanic
arts and culture. The LCC offers a year-round season of programs, including
visual arts exhibitions in two galleries and more than 50 dance, theater and
music performances annually in the Oak Farms Performance Hall. The LCC’s
signature family programs include Target Second Saturdays, the Día de los
Muertos Celebration, and the annual Posada. The Center is located at 2600 Live
Oak, Dallas, Texas 75204. LCC hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For
additional information, please call 214-671-0045 or visit our Web site at www.dallasculture.org/latinoculturalcenter.
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