GERARDO ROSALES

Gerardo Rosales (b. 1967) lives and works in Houston, United States. Initially a self-taught artist, he later graduated from the Armando Reverón University of the Arts in Caracas and the Chelsea School of Art in London. Rosales belongs to a global generation of artists who identify through a figurative approach to nature and sexuality, where species and genders multiply incessantly. His work is distinguished by its forest-like, homoerotic, and fantastical imagery, in which animal and human figures intertwine in acts of love and hunting.

Another important aspect of his production is irony. This aspect is present both textually and figuratively through the titles of his works, making constant references to fabulous narratives typical of a childhood imagination, where sexual ambiguity and gender conflict are evident.

In the words of Luis Pérez-Oramas: “His ultimate goal, perhaps, is to question a certain ideology of innocence with which we, humans of our time, transform childhood into an original fantasy. Against this, Rosales’s works remind us, through the luminous beauty of their ornamental trellises, that there has never truly been an unknown origin or an era of innocence; that humanity has always, forever, been marked and destined by possession and desire, by its exultation and its anxiety, by its daily little death and its instant and provisional paradise.”

Over the past few years, Rosales has participated in various exhibitions in different countries. Among his solo exhibitions, highlights include: Rio Chiquito at the Museum of Contemporary Art Houston (2024) in Houston, USA; Ornamento y Delito at the Carmen Araujo Arte Gallery (2022) in Caracas, Venezuela; Undercover at the Galveston Art Center (2019) in Galveston, USA; and Mind Your Step at the Avis Frank Gallery (2013) in Houston, USA. Among group exhibitions, highlights include: Withstand: Latinx Art during Conflicts at the Holocaust Museum (2021) in Houston, USA; Carriers: The Body as a Site of Danger and Desire at the Blaffer Museum (2021) in Houston, USA; and Lo Politico at the Carmen Araujo Arte Gallery (2014) in Caracas, Venezuela. His work is included in significant collections such as the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection in New York, USA; the Bank of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela; and the Ateneo de Valência in Valência, Venezuela.