Vibrant hues of green leaves glisten in the sun as their arms stretch around a large window. It’s the same comforting view that the girlfriend of artist Galileo Gonzalez saw when she fell ill for a prolonged time. A string of Christmas lights across the window and the red and black books add a final touch to the cozy scene.
The collection of plants, curated by Gonzalez’s girlfriend, are forever enshrined in the painting “Windowsill,” part of an artistic exploration of the artist’s home in San Antonio, Texas on exhibition at Flatline Gallery.
“Dedicated to You: A Love Letter to San Antonio” will show at Flatline from Saturday, Oct. 2 to Oct. 31.
The work is a tribute to Gonzalez’s pandemic bubble in the southside of San Antonio, his home of four years after graduating with a bachelor of fine arts degree from Cal State Long Beach.
“For me [the exhibition] is very important. It’s sort of like a homecoming,” Gonzalez, who grew up in the cities of Bell and La Puente, said.
Gonzalez never expected to leave California, he shared in his exhibition statement. He did it to move in with his girlfriend and fell deeply in love with the city in the process.
A son of Southeast Los Angeles, the artist is coming back to share the inspiration found in his Texas backyard.
In “Windowsill,” Gonzalez gives a glimpse into the comfort of the room he shares with his partner. His love for his new home pours out through the acrylic.
“It was the view my girlfriend saw every day,” Gonzalez said of the plants nestled on the windowsill. “I thought it would be a nice little tribute to the window.”
Gonzalez had an everyday view of his own he wanted to immortalize, the water tower he saw on his walks while at work.
In the middle of a clear blue Texas sky, a gigantic off-white steel water tower with the word “Cowboys” stands amid power lines contrasting with the vast greenery below.
A green gradient of shrubs creates a cloud-like shape that engulfs about half of the water tower. The piece is a serene depiction of nature enveloping the surrounding city.
A line drawing of a yellow flower, reminiscent of the sun, appears to the right.
If “Windowsill” is a representation of love, “McCollum Water Tower” is Gonzalez taking pride in south San Antonio.
“That painting, in particular, is like my little tribute to the south side,” Gonzalez said, noting that it also pays homage to the people and their pride for the area.
Another love letter comes in the form of “Midsummer Bloom,” a painting that was inspired by the winter freeze that hit Texas in February, killing plants in Gonzalez’s backyard and surrounding areas.
The painting shows remnants of a gray sky giving way to a subtle blue. Below, a cactus flourishes among green trees and red flowers.
The piece depicts the greenery that sprouted in the wild after the rain, a commentary on resilience and optimism that also applied after the winter surge in COVID-19 cases.
The serene nature of the landscapes in the exhibition are a stark difference to some of Gonzalez’s previous work.
“A lot of my earlier paintings are more violent,” the Salvadoran-American artist said. “I did a lot of things on the Salvadoran civil war, on the death of family members and other people in the war.”
Gonzalez called his latest work a “change of pace,” with some chaos attributed to his style of painting overtaken by the haze of his casual airbrush use.
The saying “Everything is bigger in Texas” rings true with this collection of paintings that are mostly acrylic on canvas tarp measuring 4 feet by 3 feet.
The large paintings will be available for viewing at the opening reception on Saturday, Oct. 2 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Gonzalez noted that he is excited to showcase a part of his new home and called his first proper show in California “a big deal.”
“It’s nice to come back home and just bring a little piece of San Antonio and what I really love about it,” Gonzalez said. “I want to bring a little piece of home [back] home.”
‘Dedicated to you: A love letter to San Antonio,’ will be available for viewing at Flatline Gallery from Oct. 2 to Oct. 31. Appointments are required Wednesday through Friday. Walk-ins are welcomed on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. To book an appointment click here.
Flatline Gallery is located at 6023 Atlantic Ave. in Long Beach.
