Gonzales Alba

Gonzales Alba

Centaura di Ares, bronze, 420x288cm

 

 

Alba Gonzales was born in Rome to a family of Greek-Spanish origin, she is divided between Versilia and the capital. Since 1973 she has devoted herself to the art of sculpture after having been a “star” classical dancer at the Rome Opera and having obtained a diploma in lyrical singing.

She drew her inspiration from “Masters” such as Arturo Martini (1889-1947), Henry Moore (1898-1986), Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Marino Marini (1901-1980), Giacomo Manzù (1908-1991), Francesco Messina (1900-1995), Pietro Cascella (1920-2008), Pietro Consagra (1920-2005) His first personal exhibition, in 1975, was the start of a career rich in success in Italy and abroad. Throughout these forty years of activity Alba has participated in numerous personal or collective exhibitions. In the workshops of the Marble Laboratories of Versilia (Pietrasanta, Querceta and Carrara), where she works with Botero, Mitoraj, she molds her sculptures and in the Artistic Foundries of Pietrasanta, Verona and Vicenza she makes her works in bronze. In 1989 she founded the “Pianeta Azzurro” Museum dedicated to sculpture which hosts a permanent collection of international artists and traveling exhibitions.

Alba Gonzales and her art

The works of Alba Gonzales in the evolution of her creativity are expressed through themes, from anthropomorphic figuration to metamorphosis. His artistic itinerary testifies to a wealth of approaches to materials, forms, deep contents, buried in history and in the psyche of man. The worries, discomforts and anxieties of our time are interpreted through metaphors, myth and dream: Love, the True, the Likely and the Apparent, the Enigma, the Illusion, the Violence and the finally the Irony all these elements are merged in his creations.

Interview

  • Interw: I would like to start this interview with a particular figure: Narcissus. One of the most talented critics claimed that artists are Narcissus because they are inclined to reflect themselves in their creations.

  • Alba: Yes, it’s about a friend, Giorgio Di Genova, who maintains that throughout his life, “mutatis mutandis” each artist repeats the “same” work. Yet I think I stand out because I don’t like repeating the same themes, as often happens to please the market. Art is an adventure, it is the discovery of oneself and of the world. These are the events that involve us, they participate in bringing emotions to our existence, and they make my works, even if occasionally monothematic, are all in nuance.

  • Interw: Alba, you have many talents: at the age of 20 you obtained your diploma in classical dance at the Rome Opera, at 23 in opera singing in Trieste. After interpreting other people’s creations, what was the trigger that led you to create your own world through sculpture?

  • Alba: Of course, everything was possible thanks to my overflowing imagination, I dream with my eyes open, I follow surreal visions that fill my mind and then I try to realize them by working the material. Many times a new piece can also be born by digging into my “I” in search of myself and trying to understand the purpose of my life and that of others.

  • Interw: But in the context in which we live today, do you think you have an objective overview of the news?

  • Alba: No, absolutely and it seems to me that the further I go the less I understand. This is why, perhaps, like all artists, I send messages, to externalize my vision of the world, which is certainly not objective, but it is mine, it is the only one that I can dare to give birth.

  • Interw: “To give birth”, what do you mean by this word?

  • Alba: The form that did not exist and to which you transmitted all your energy, to the point of feeling tired and exhausted, does it not resemble this happy state that one experiences after have given birth? Who is a wife, mother and artist fully understands what I’m talking about.

  • Interw: Are your sculptures always born from a positive state of mind?

  • Alba: No really, on the contrary, some of my works arose in moments of depression. The darker sides of humanity were revealing themselves to my eyes and I seemed to be clearly discovering the beast that is inside of us all. In this period I started a series of monumental works that I brought together under the name of Sphinx and Chimeras, where the contamination between the Beast and the Being merged in a complex metamorphosis. According to the critics, some of these works are particularly disturbing

  • Interw: Are your Centaurs also part of this same period?

  • Alba: No, the centaurs were born later. I was prompted by the idea of ​​giving a worthy companion to Chiron because in my opinion, a centaur-woman had never been realized. Chira, the Centaur of Aeneas is a cultivated centaur, who loves dancing and music. A second Centaur launches a dove into the air to celebrate peace and freedom. With the Ares Centaur, on the other hand, I sought to express the dramatic negativity of war. I designed her as a fifth figure in addition to the four knights of the Apocalypse.

  • Interw: Myths have always been a source of inspiration for you, but some of your pieces seem to be inspired by modern false myths: those myths that the media manage to create and about which you often joke. Is it true ?

  • Alba: Yes, my sense of humor helps me turn the page. The absurdity of certain situations, even in the social, causes impulses for my creativity. Through La Conjunction, for example, I represent assisted fertilization, a much criticized and hindered practice, this work is composed of three figures brought together. In When the worker bee becomes queen bee I glimpse the characteristics of the career woman, while in Mirror of my desires I underline how the search for beauty at all costs is now transformed into a compulsive and pathetic activity. Often I find myself being critical and severe in my remarks. News death is served is my reaction to the spectacle of “death” given to us by the media “midday and evening” at mealtimes.

  • Interw: And love? Contrary to what you have just said, in several of your sculptures it is love that stands out with all its Eros, explicit but never vulgar, steeped in harmonious tenderness.

  • Alba: I think you are referring to my many couples. Yes it’s true, I love the Love that fortunately I knew. It is the feeling that further ennobles us in all its forms and in the love between two beings, I find infinite forms and adjustments, as infinite can be their embraces. But there are also deviations from Love and in some sculptures, such as The Raped Apple, I have dealt with dramatic themes and unfortunately they are very topical.

  • Interw: Certainly, but you have to have courage to approach certain subjects. Mine is not courage, it is simply the desire to communicate. The media, for example, go beyond the threshold of ethics by often offering programs for voyeurs; I, on the other hand, hope to be able, even just for a moment, to stop the frantic race of our society. Hope is that when faced with Art we stop thinking. This should be the supreme duty. Concerning the theme of homosexuality: in 2000 in Rome, during the Jubilee and during the first Gay Pride, I cast Tribute to Antinoo, a work in bronze which was suggested to me by the event and the memory of the reading of Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel, “Les memoirs d’Adrien”.

  • Interw: To summarize and conclude: how can you define Art?

  • Alba: I will try but I have difficulties: I can answer you that for me Art is the realization of ideas and dreams, but often also nightmares. The sculpture is my lifeline to which I cling as long as my hands have the strength to hold on.

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GaonzalesAlba Xentaura di Ares bronzo 420x288cm

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