Gonzalo Fuenmayor

Gonzalo Fuenmayor's work reflects the dual cultural influence that has inexorably shaped his artistic practice: the Hispanic and the North American. His artistic research questions Caribbean identity as a brand and the stereotypes that this concept has generated through images that have become local symbols, such as the toucan, the pineapple, the palm tree, and, especially, the banana. Fuenmayor's work represents a reflection on identity and the sociopolitical conditions of developing countries like Colombia. The artist aims to combine a narrative line in his works, where the decorative and the tragic merge in a discourse that borrows resources from literature, cinema, and advertising. It's not coincidental that Fuenmayor has found his means of expression in the classic technique of charcoal and uses chiaroscuro to seek light from shadows. From intensely worked black backgrounds, he achieves these points of light that outline and illuminate the motifs in his works, those immense chandeliers formed by clusters of bananas. In this way, the artist eliminates the use of color commonly associated with the tropics and adopts black and white as a means to define his hybrid identity.