Artist: JP Gonzales
Exhibition: Afterburn
Media: Sculpture
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Gatov Gallery West
Website: None
Instagram: undeadtoothfairy

JP Gonzales is an undergraduate student at California State University, Long Beach. Gonzales working towards obtaining their BFA here at CSULB’s School of Art. Their focus is on sculpture. Gonzales’s work explores the self, connection, pain, and abstraction in their work. For the Afterburn in Gavto West Gallery, Liu showcased a person-like sculpture hanging on the wall with projections over it.

Gonzales’s artwork was one of scariest in the gallery so I was so curious as to what it was about. easily The artwork was positioned on a wall. The mannequin-like sculpture was on the wall. The figure was black and had some sort of wrapping around it. I believe that wrapping was plastic bags. It wrapped over certain parts of the body. The black figure looked like some type of fabric that was put together to mimic a body. There was a plastic bag over it which made me a bit confused. At first look, I was a bit intimidated because I thought I would see a face. The projection over the sculpture tied in the piece well. The protection was a night drive.

Gonzales’s artwork touched on the topics of pain and trauma. The show Afterburn “examines responses to pain held in the body or mind.” In this piece, Gonzales explained that they had just gone through a breakup and this piece was letting go of that part of themselves. The artwork is made out of a Halloween skeleton, fabric, plastic bags, and a projecting video. When Gonzales thought this piece would bring closure to a part of his life. That experience has left their body. Gonzales said that he figures don’t resemble a literal dead body. Instead, it’s more of the emotions carrying the dead body, that’s why they chose the black fabric to resemble that. The addition of the projection was to show how their body felt like it was being dragged in a car.

Overall, I enjoyed this artist conversation! This time the conversation was a bit dark yet I liked hearing Gonzales’ perspective. Life does get ruff sometimes and it isn’t what it seems. There will be dark moments in life. Those darks moments will suck but it’s how we heal that is important. The healing experience can be hard and slow but it does make us stronger. We have art as an outlet to express our feelings!