Cynthia Gonzalez

Cynthia Yadira Gonzalez (they/them) is a Mexican American artist who has been painting since 2003 and sculpting since 2009. Their work is vibrant in color and incorporates found objects and non-traditional mediums, like felt and caulking, to create eccentric and unusual objects packed with sibylline symbolism. Inspired by dreams, nightmares, and mental illness, their work serves to visually communicate the anxiety and daily dysphoria that is a familiar recurrence in their everyday life. Raised in San José, Cynthia Yadira Gonzalez earned their Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Spatial Arts (sculpture) from San José State University in 2020 and is currently working on their Master’s in Fine Arts at San Jose State University.

There is an exploration of ipseity in the sculptures created. The work is a culmination of all the artist has been exposed to, from Mexican/ Aztec roots to punk/ goth subcultures. Growing up in Juarez Mexico engulfed by bright colors and industrialization juxtaposed with the violence that resides in a border town. Playing with symbols of power from voodoo and alchemy, my practice centers around the creation of multi-faced creatures whose surfaces are adorned with this imagery. This work is influenced by Mexican clay Folk Art, each handcrafted piece is a story within itself. Grew up enamored with religious iconography, the paintings of Frida Kahlo, and North and South American Pre-Columbian art of the Moche and the Mayans. While working with sculpture, the possibilities feel endless; hand-crafting imaginations that were only bound by gravity. The work relates the imagination of dreams and nightmares into a physical plane. Creating different narrations of memories and connecting past experiences of my own to others. Combining knowledge of creation-stories, from Santeria to Aztec folklore, the artwork weaves a narration of shamanistic associations. The creatures sculpted morph into animals showing the duality and connection within all life, to bridge the past and the present. These current sculptures have been exploring surrealism. Drawing from the history and knowledge of every story remembered to construct a creation that comes solely from a childlike notion of imagination. In return, creating the medicine that can be used to alleviate my ancestors' colonization and finally mend some open wounds.