Artist Rob Gonsalves was born in Toronto, Canada in 1959. During his childhood, he developed an interest in drawing from imagination using various media. By age twelve, his awareness of architecture grew as he learned perspective techniques and began to do his first paintings and renderings of imagined buildings.
After an introduction to Artists Dali and Tanguy, Gonsalves began his first surrealist paintings. The “Magic Realism” approach of Magritte along with the precise perspective illusions of Escher came to be influences in his future work.
In his post college years, Gonsalves worked full time as an architect, also painting trompe l’oeil murals and theatre sets. After an enthusiastic response in 1990 at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Gonsalves devoted himself to painting full time.
Although Gonsalves’ work is often categorized as surrealistic, it differs as the images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. 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 in the impossible. Numerous individuals around the world, corporations, embassies and a United States Senator collect Gonsalves’ original work, and limited edition prints. Rob Gonsalves has exhibited at Art Expo New York and Los Angeles, as well as one-man shows at Discovery Galleries, Ltd., Hudson River Art, Kaleidoscope Gallery, Marcus Ashley Galleries and Huckleberry Fine Art.
In June of 2003, Simon and Schuster introduced North America and Canada to Imagine a Night, Gonsalves’ first hardcover book featuring sixteen paintings. In October of 2004, Sterling Publishing released masters of Deception. A hardcover book featuring, Gonsalves’ image The Sun Sets Sail on the cover, and including a 16 page chapter on the artist.
Due to the success of Imagine A Night, Simon & Schuster released Imagine A Day, a companion book in February of 2005. Followed by “Imagine A Place” in 2008. Sellers Publishing produced his first wall calendar for 2009, titled “master of Illusion” and another was released for 2010. Gonsalves has been recognized as the most famous living surrealist painter in North America, and is currently published by Huckleberry Fine Art in Rockville, Maryland.
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