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Elle magazine dubbed Gonz\u00e1lez \u201cFashion\u2019s Favorite New Artist,\u201d while exhibitions in Rome, Paris, Belfast and Bilbao, Spain, expanded her reputation across Europe.<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez developed her classic yet defiantly modern approach while studying at the University of Seville, where Spanish masters such as Diego Vel\u00e1zquez and Francisco de Zurbar\u00e1n painted in the naturalist Baroque tradition. Drawing liberally from fashion, art history and everyday life, she often dresses the subjects of her portraits in puffer jackets \u2014 garments she wears herself during the cold winters of Granada, Spain, where she lives. The material, she said, recalls the sculptural rendering of fabric in paintings by Zurbar\u00e1n and Vel\u00e1zquez: the folds, the volumes, the high shine. <\/p>\n
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Nieves Gonz\u00e1lez often dresses her subjects in puffer jackets.<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt works beautifully from a visual standpoint,\u201d she said, speaking Spanish during an interview at Santa Monica\u2019s Bergamot Station a few days before the exhibition opened. Wearing blue jeans and a pink button-down blouse, she echoed the pastel blues and pinks that appear throughout many of the works surrounding her.<\/p>\n
\u201cFashion inspires me,\u201d she said. \u201cJust as 17th century artists drew inspiration from the fashion of their day \u2014 often creating paintings that served as catalogs of current styles \u2014 I do the same,\u201d she said. \u201cThe goal is to not merely convey a specific message or ideology but to create a testament to a generation and the era in which we live.\u201d<\/p>\n
This fall, Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s painting \u201cLa Sfida\u201d (2025) will appear in the St\u00e4del Museum\u2019s exhibition \u201cMary Magdalene. Sin. Pray. Love\u201d in Frankfurt, Germany, alongside works by Lady Gaga, Marlene Dumas and Auguste Rodin. The painting depicts Mary Magdalene with long, flowing hair, draped in a regal red garment and clutching a skull \u2014 a contemporary interpretation of one of Christianity\u2019s most enduring figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cNieves Gonz\u00e1lez is the youngest of these artists and, at the same time, probably the one who most closely follows in the tradition of the Old Masters,\u201d curators Bastian Eclercy and Stefan Roller wrote in an email.<\/p>\n
The Santa Monica exhibition marks an evolution from the paintings that established Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s reputation. Earlier works often centered on solitary women posed with the self-possession of royal portraits or religious icons. \u201cA Friendship Story\u201d focuses on relationships between pairs of women, exploring friendship, intimacy, support and shared experience.<\/p>\n
For Gonz\u00e1lez, friendship is one of the most profound aspects of women\u2019s lives and a subject she felt deserved greater attention in painting.<\/p>\n
Victoria Rios, a curator who works with Gonz\u00e1lez, said the artist\u2019s paintings \u201crewrite the narratives of the past, rewrite the history of martyrdom and place women at the center.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing in her painting is arbitrary,\u201d Rios said in an email. \u201cEvery formal decision is also an ethical one.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe horse elevates the art; symbolically, it carries connotations of elegance and nobility,\u201d Nieves Gonz\u00e1lez said. \u201cIt seemed like a way to elevate the concept of friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez frequently turns art historical conventions on their head. In \u201cSalir a robar caballos: Go out to steal horses,\u201d she replaces the archetypal portrait of a gallant man on horseback with two young women dressed in puffer and vinyl jackets, posed like contemporary Amazons atop rearing horses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horse elevates the art; symbolically, it carries connotations of elegance and nobility,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said. \u201cIt seemed like a way to elevate the concept of friendship. It also has an element of play, adventure and fun, since having fun is part of the bond too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The artist also sees her work through a feminist lens.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in a patriarchal society, and so, unfortunately, I belong to the oppressed segment of that society, and my work relates to that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt stems from a struggle, an understanding and a process of redefining concepts that we have historically established as normal, natural and habitual.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am interested in portraying us as brave and powerful, sometimes even with an air of haughtiness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Another painting, \u201cSomething\u2019s crossed over me and I can\u2019t go back\u201d (2026), captures Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s fusion of historical and contemporary references. Two women dressed in green and pink fur cradle each other\u2019s heads, reimagining medieval depictions of cephalophores \u2014 Christian martyrs who carry their severed heads while continuing to preach or pray.<\/p>\n
The title comes from a pivotal line in the 1991 film \u201cThelma & Louise,\u201d marking the turning point for Geena Davis\u2019 character Thelma, fully committing to her ultimately fatal adventure with Susan Sarandon\u2019s Louise.<\/p>\n
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Nieves Gonz\u00e1lez, \u201cHolding You,\u201d 2026 (oil on canvas).<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez builds each painting from what she calls a \u201cFrankenstein\u201d \u2014 a digital composite assembled from archival photographs, found images and reference material. The painting process then takes over. A mid-project visit to the Prado Museum in Madrid, for instance, might send her back to the digital sketch to pull in a compositional element from Vel\u00e1zquez before returning to the canvas. \u201cThe final result often ends up being completely different from what I initially envisioned,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Heller began representing Gonz\u00e1lez, whom he calls an \u201coriginal voice,\u201d last year after being introduced to her work by another painter. <\/p>\n
Staging her first U.S. solo exhibition in Los Angeles rather than New York reflects what he sees as a more relaxed environment for an emerging artist, without the glare and expectations of the New York art world.<\/p>\n
\u201cL.A. feels a little less constrained,\u201d Heller said. \u201cIt feels a little more free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s portrait of Allen is currently on view at London\u2019s National Portrait Gallery, hanging in the same room as a self-portrait by David Hockney<\/a>. She said while it \u201chas been very significant in terms of media exposure,\u201d exhibitions and professional opportunities were already in motion before the album cover brought wider attention.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve always said that what I want to do in life is make a living from painting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mission accomplished.<\/p>\n
‘Nieves Gonz\u00e1lez: A Friendship Story’<\/p>\n
Where:<\/b> Richard Heller Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave. #B-5A, Santa Monica<\/p>\n
When:<\/b> Saturday – July 25<\/p>\n
Reception: <\/b>Saturday, 4 – 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Info<\/b>: richardhellergallery.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish painter Nieves Gonz\u00e1lez arrives in Los Angeles for her first U.S. solo exhibition having already experienced a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[595,18890,30856,18,117,2037,596,3695,146223,104,19,17,234079,103021,337,2577,12817,68386,9223,80],"class_list":["post-545949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-art","tag-artist","tag-diego-velazquez","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibition","tag-fashion","tag-friendship","tag-gonzalez","tag-horse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lily-allen-album-cover","tag-mary-magdalene","tag-music","tag-painting","tag-portrait","tag-santa-monica","tag-woman","tag-work"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116785129543631436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}