Basic information
Name: Nelson Gonzalez, November 23, 1979
Place of birth: Maracaibo, Venezuela
Based in: Lives and works in Aruba since 2003
Discipline: Multidisciplinary

BIOGRAPHY
Nelson Gonzalez (Maracaibo, Venezuela, 1979) is a Dutch Venezuelan contemporary artist, curator and artistic researcher based in Aruba since 2003. Working across sculpture, painting, installation, public art, performance and curatorial practice, his work explores how societies construct and preserve meaning through material traces, public space and collective memory.

His practice has developed through long-term research across the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the United States, evolving from Integration as Art into Vestiges of a Society, an ongoing investigation of contemporary objects, images and actions as archaeological evidence of the present.
Gonzalez is also the founder of La Tintota Taller Estudio de Arte, SINFA, Art Rap Foundation, Studio Nelson Gonzalez and ZEER TROPISCH Art House, platforms through which he connects artistic research, cultural mediation and collaborative production.

In 2024, his Migrant Monument entered the National Public Art Collection of the United States after its selection through the City of Doral’s international public art competition.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2025
– The Decolonial Dream, Ana Cathalina House, Oranjestad, Aruba.
– Participation, Aruba Art Fair, Contemporary Pavilion, San Nicolas, Aruba.
2024
– Doral Art Fair, Art Conexion Foundation Collection, Miami, Florida, United States.
2023
– Love Me Bogotá, Open Studio and Performance, Studio Nelson Gonzalez, Bogotá, Colombia.
– Migrante Monument, permanent public monument, City of Doral, Florida, United States.
– Festival del Ruido, organized by Edge Zones, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2022
–  Poéticas a la Vera, Alliance Française, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
– LGBT+ Biennial, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2019
–  U.S. Unification of States, Edge Zones, Laundromat Art Space, Miami, United States.
– Unification of States, Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea.
– Entre Dos Aguas, UNOCA, Aruba.
2018–2010
– Brilliant Stories, Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao.
– Net Niet, Museo del Atlántico, Barranquilla, Colombia.
– Trilogía Surrealista Maracucha, Museum of Contemporary Art of Zulia (MACZUL), Venezuela.
– Vamos a ver si eso es verdad, Dutch Embassy, Havana, Cuba.
– Organic Situations, INSIGHT Foundation for the Arts, Aruba.
– Milk Drops, National Library of Aruba, Aruba; Landhuis Bloemhof, Curaçao.
– The Divine Tit, Ateliers’89, Aruba.
– Psychographic Acts, Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao.
– OroubO Casino, Ateliers’89, San Nicolas, Aruba.
2007–1997
– ATINAR, INSIGHT Foundation for the Arts, Aruba.
– The Dream of the Man with the Burning Bed, Access Gallery, Aruba; Otrobanda Gallery, Willemstad, Curaçao.
– Behind the Search for an Expressive Language, Sala Puchi Fonseca, Neptalí Rincón School of Fine Arts, Maracaibo, Venezuela.
– Multiple collective exhibitions at MACZUL, Banco Mara Gallery, Balmiro León Graphic Art Museum, and regional institutions, Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Publications

2013 MILK DROPS, multi-disciplinary art project ISBN 978-99904-1-780-7

AWARDS

2023 Winner, International Open Call for Public Art, Migrante Monument, City of Doral, Florida, United States.
2010 Absolute Winner, National Monologue Festival, Aruba.
2004 Young Artist Award, Regional Visual Arts Salon, Museum of Contemporary Art of Zulia (MACZUL), Maracaibo, Venezuela.
1998 First Prize in Painting, Homage to Gabriel Bracho, Zulia, Venezuela.

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

2024
Migrant Monument, National Public Art Collection of the United States, City of Doral, Florida.