“I like to draw images that create a connection between the environment created by man and nature. That is what becomes the starting point for developing an image that expresses my craving for what is thought of as mutually exclusive and incompatible, ”commented artist Rob Gonsalves on his work.
Biography
Robert Gonçalves was born in 1959 into a gypsy family. Hometown - Toronto, Canada. From an early age, Rob was passionate about drawing. He walked with a pencil everywhere and often made sketches in a small notebook. The artist did not leave his passion on an amateur level - at the age of 12 he was studying the technique of perspectives. At the same time, he creates his first paintings.
Craving for perfect and verified forms leads him to the study of architecture. After graduating from college, Goncalves gets a job as an ordinary architect. Confidence in the future gives a career in a construction company, self-realization - painting. Rob Gonçalves also finds an outlet in the creation of scenery for local theaters and frescoes, which masterfully created the illusion of reality.
In 1990, the artist took part in an exhibition of street art. The paintings of Rob Goncalves are of great interest and a lot of praise. This recognition by the public and art connoisseurs inspires Rob to give up his career as an architect and devote himself entirely to creativity.
To date , the artist has created about 70 unique in its kind and in the sense of paintings. His work is in great demand. And since the artist has been working on each painting for about three months, those who want to get the long-awaited canvas have to pay a considerable amount.
The magic of Rob Goncalves
Such surrealists as Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy, Rene Magritte, Maurits Escher had a great influence on the artist’s work. However, the paintings of Rob Gonçalves are not entirely surrealism. It is rather realism. "Magic Realism" by Goncalves. His paintings are at the junction of the real world and the world of the illusory. The artist plans and draws the border dividing these two universes with architectural precision.
At first glance, his paintings seem ordinary, but it is worth taking a closer look at how reality begins to play a joke with you - to change literally before our eyes, opening from another, completely unusual side. The ambiguous paintings of Rob Gonçalves are suggestive of the duality of being. The world is becoming the way you see it. Change the point of view, the perspective of the vision and the reality surrounding you will change.
The most famous paintings
In the foreground of the painting “Dancing Water”, graceful girls dancing in white are clearly drawn, however, taking a closer look, we see how the figures in the future merge into one stream, forming a flowing waterfall.
A boy standing in a cave, examining stalactites and stalagmites, encounters the magic of two worlds. “Both above and below” is an excellent example of how Rob Gonçalves’s paintings combine works of architecture and nature.
“Towers of knowledge” is another example of how objects familiar to all of us smoothly flow into buildings. In the picture, an ordinary city library with stacks of books smoothly transforms into a beautiful city under a pre-sunset sky.
Summary
This is the whole of Goncalves, playing with the world man-made and created by nature itself. The artist, as a great illusionist who carefully preserves his prestige, makes real scenes magical. Looking at the paintings by Rob Goncalves, one involuntarily asks the questions: “What is real here and what is apparent? What is important and what is secondary? ” It is impossible to tear oneself away from viewing his paintings until you begin to perceive the whole picture completely as a whole, with all its metamorphoses and the flow of one object into another. This is the main message of Goncalves: the impossible is possible.