Geraldo Gonzalez

Wilmington

Established
Visual Arts: Works on Paper

By: Gail Obenreder

“My passion for public transportation has led me to make thousands of artworks to encourage people to use and find the beauty in these local transportation systems.”

Geraldo Gonzalez has been a transit enthusiast for as long as he can remember. But while others might study transportation vehicles, their history, and their routes, he has turned this interest into a flourishing artistic practice, earning him the nickname “The King of Transit.”

Gonzalez first began taking photographs for a middle school assignment and soon became fascinated by public transit.  As a teen, he regularly took the bus to and from school, but his career was really inspired by a student poster contest sponsored by the Delaware Administration for Regional Transit (DART). Gonzalez visited the corporation’s Riverfront headquarters, only to discover that the contest was months away. And so, he began to prepare, drawing daily and refining his presentation over several months. Not surprisingly, he took first place in the contest in both his junior and senior years, and this vision has continued unabated in the two decades since.

The Wilmington resident came to Delaware in 1996, but he grew up in South Philadelphia with his parents: his mother was from Manhattan, New York, and his father moved to New York from Puerto Rico in 1970s. He attended Christiana High School and was soon exploring the many public transit routes throughout the region. Gonzalez calls it “transit-fanning,” likening it to a safari as the vehicles make their way through cities and communities.

The self-taught artist has developed a technique of projecting and enlarging photographic images, transferring them to paper or canvas and then filling them with color and line. He works in overlapping media – colored pencil, acrylic paint, oils, watercolor, photography, video, and sculpture. In addition to the vivid transit drawings that have earned him two Division Fellowships (2019 and this year), Gonzalez has expanded his practice to include a graphic design project: He photographs buses and then (via photoshop) removes their logos or advertisements and virtually “wraps” the vehicles with drawings pulsing with energy.

Gonzalez has exhibited frequently in the area, including his first artistic home at The Creative Vision Factory and at the Delaware Art Museum, the University of Delaware, and The Delaware Contemporary, where he’s currently an artist-in-residence. The Contemporary is located on the Riverfront where his career began, and the year-long residency affords him studio space, one-to-one mentorship, and professional development opportunities. Gonzalez visits his studio there almost daily.

He often finds it challenging to network, make connections with other art organizations, and communicate with “other artists and students” about his work. But he finds inspiration in “seeing individuals overcome obstacles, big or small,” reminding him of the capacity for growth and inviting him to “push myself further . . . and contribute positively to the world around me.”

Gonzalez is rewarded by his ability “to directly make a positive impact on people’s lives . . . by my artwork” and helping them to achieve their own goals. And he continues to explore the Puerto Rican culture that influences his art in many ways. He hopes that the Fellowship will help his artistic practice “extend beyond the physical activities of making artistic products” and will include influence and ideas, as well as the tools and skills to keep moving forward as an artist.

 

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