Tamara Gonzales was born in Madera, CA in 1959 and lives in Brooklyn, NY. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Vermont College ADP in Montpelier, VT in 2005 and an Associate in Applied Science, Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York, NY in 1990. Gonzales’s work has been featured in exhibitions such as The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, NY (2024); Orpheus, PS1, Long Island City, NY (2007); 99¢, Jersey City Museum & Victory Hall, Jersey City, NJ (2007); Current/Undercurrent, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (1997); and Cool Girls, PS122, New York, NY (1996). Gonzales is a prominent participant in the community of artist-run spaces and artist-driven projects in New York City, and her work is held in public collections including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. She has been awarded residencies such as Center of Contemporary Art, Andratx, Mallorca, Spain (2012); International Artists Exchange Program, Basel, Switzerland (2008); Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India (2001); Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY (1999); and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT (1997).
Tamara Gonzalez's work marries popular culture with mythology. Much of her early painting and installation work came directly out of ceremonial ritual: puja; ancestor worship; Wicca; and Catholicism. Recently, Gonzalez is equally influenced by contemporary Western art and the studio as a place where her art making is a private behavior performed with the intent to engage a larger social environment.
The foundation of Gonzalez's painting practice is an intuitive and focused application of paint to canvas which utilizes expressive gestures, along with stencils, images, and text. Gonzalez's use of mixed media and collage allows her the ability to take advantage of the chance encounter of different materials in the studio along with the flexibility to address current world events.