No products found
Use fewer filters or remove all

Collection: Rob Gonsalves Art

Photo of Rob Gonsalves

Art Center Gallery is proud to feature original art, and limited edition prints from Rob Gonsalves. Robert “Rob” Gonsalves is a Canadian painter of magic realism with a unique perspective and style. His attention to technical details combined with his ability to immerse the audience in his inner world makes for striking series of artworks that leave the audience spell bounded.

Personal History

Gonsalves spend his childhood daydreaming and drawing. This has evolved into a career of making paintings that are primarily a celebration of imagination. The greatest joy in drawing for Gonsalves was the ability to give form to something that had existed only inside of his head. Gradually, his aptitude for mathematics started influencing his drawings, shifting the focus towards buildings. By the age of twelve, his interest in architecture grew. He learned perspective techniques and he began to create his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings. Further, in his teens, fantasy, symbolism, and surrealism in art, literature, and even music, dominated his interests.

Interestingly, Gonsalves lacked the courage to pursue a career in painting and didn’t see it as a realistic career path so he took his love of architecture and went on to work in that field for 5 years. The job, however, did not allow him the opportunities to explore his imagination the way he desired.

It wasn’t until he experienced an enthusiastic response to his paintings at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in 1990, that he began painting full time. He explains, “Huckleberry Fine Art, in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area took the success of my work to a new level, and began publishing limited edition reproductions of it. Three children's books have been created using my paintings; Imagine a Night, Imagine a Day and Imagine a Place. Master of Illusion is the name of the calendar series that contains my artwork, now in its sixth year."

Style & Influence

After discovering artists in his thirties M.C.Escher, Salvador Dalí, and Tanguy, Gonsalves became inspired and began his first surrealistic paintings. He demonstrates his masterful technique and the understanding of perspective. His art is often equated with surrealism, but not everyone agrees with that. While surrealists address the subconscious, Gonsalves follows his personal belief that magical experiences aren’t confined and limited to the subconscious. Moreover, he projects the images that are deliberately planned and are the result of conscious thoughts.

The Magic Realism

Gonsalves’ first introduction to the work of René Magritte helped him cement the direction his own art was about to take. Magritte’s The Human Condition was very influential. Gonsalves has a vision that is more about the imagined possibilities than the psychology of dreams or locked up secrets of the subconscious. Ideas are largely generated by the external world and involve recognizable human activities, using carefully planned illusionist devices. Gonsalves injects a sense of magic into realistic scenes. As a result, the term "Magic Realism" describes his work accurately. His work is an attempt to represent human beings' desire to believe the impossible, to be open to possibility.

Numerous individuals around the world, corporations, embassies, and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves’ original work, and limited edition prints. Markedly, he has exhibited at Art all around the world. Highlights include, Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, Decor Atlanta and Las Vegas, and Fine Art Forum as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd. and Hudson River Art Gallery.

For Rob Gonsalves paintings, the particular subject depicted and its emotional impact are crucial. Further, the illusions are simply means to an end and must serve the overall objectives of the image. His smooth transitions from seemingly distant and different world are the true representations of the beauty that can be found in the field of Magical Realism. The magic is inevitably part of life – you just need to be open to it; only then you can really grasp the meaning behind his paintings.