September 10, 2021 will mark the opening of Tamara Gonzales’s fourth solo show with Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Titled Horrible Beauty, the show encompasses large scale canvases, a series of new works on paper, and sculptures. The title refers to a concept conceived by the American spiritual teacher, Ram Dass, about learning to embrace aging or decay in living beings.
Whether in her studio or traveling abroad, drawing has always been a constant in Gonzales’ practice. Her sketchbooks and drawing pads are filled with depictions of fantastical creatures resembling beings such as birds, snakes, humans or butterflies in garden-like settings. Gonzales combines a variety of media in her work, inventing different marks and textures to translate her experiences to paper. Where the hardness of colored pencil creates one kind of line, the softness of markers washed with water or the defined contours of graphite create something different. Horrible Beauty will feature the full scope of her material usage in her works on paper.