Biography

Raul Rene Gonzalez is an award-winning and published multidisciplinary artist who incorporates an astonishingly wide range of mediums and methods in his paintings, drawings, sculptures, clothing, murals, installations, live and recorded dance and other performance-based work. Largely autobiographical in nature, his work explores topics such as fatherhood, gender roles, labor, work, identity, pop culture, science, and abstraction. Gonzalez is known by art critics, curators, and friends alike for his unwavering energy, ambition and experimentation that has led to the creation of several hundred unique works over the past decade. He truly lives his motto: “Werk. Hustle. Sleep. Repeat.”

Gonzalez earned his M.F.A. in Art from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a B.F.A. in Painting from the University of Houston, Magna Cum Laude. From 1999-2001, Raul attended Washington University in St. Louis School of Art where he spent time mastering his drawing skills.

Gonzalez’s artwork was featured in the Latino romantic-comedy film “Say A Little Prayer” and has been published in New American Paintings, Harper’s Magazine, Southwest Contemporary, The Oxford American, Create! Magazine, and West Branch. Gonzalez has also been featured or reviewed by Texas Monthly, Glasstire, The San Antonio Express News, La Prensa Texas, Spectrum News, The San Antonio Current, The Austin Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The Texas Observer, The Houston Press, and Whataburger.

Gonzalez has received numerous awards and grants, including a 2023 Houston Endowment Jones Artist Award, an Individual Artist Grant from the City of San Antonio, a 2022 Luminaria Artist Foundation Grant, Sustainable Arts Foundation Grant Award, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, and a Dave Bown Projects Award of Excellence.