Anthony Goicolea

In dialogue with Fvtvrist

FVTVRIST meets Anthony Goicolea on the occasion of two landmark exhibitions - Double Standard at Crone Berlin and It Won’t Always Be the Same Again at Ron Mandos in Amsterdam. Long recognized for his ability to transform questions of identity and memory into layered visual worlds, Goicolea now navigates new painterly territories. Fvtvrists discusses with the artist, how his practice continues to evolve, and what lies ahead.

Installation-View-Anthony-Goicolea-‘It-Wont-Always-Be-the-Same-Again-Galerie-Ron-Mandos-Am

Exhibition view: It won’t always be the same again, Anthony Goicolea, Ron Mandos Gallery
Image credit: Jonathan de Waart

You’ve just shown new bodies of work in Berlin and Amsterdam. How did presenting them in those two very different cities shift your own perception of the work?

I started working on both shows at the same time. I was working in a very condensed and short period of time and so I decided to just allow myself to work in a purely intuitive way. Each painting ended up informing the subsequent painting. It was only after I had completed all the work that I was able to see the through line and understand how the works would suit each location and each show. The works for Berlin were more characteristically defined by a
linear quality with jagged lines reminiscent of wood cuts and bright acidic colors that vibrate for attention.

The works that were exhibited in Amsterdam had a slightly more modeled quality and environmental ambiance. Somehow the harsh linear quality of the works selected for Berlin felt more in line with an idea of German art history while the works for Amsterdam were concerned with light and atmosphere akin to Dutch or Flemish painting references.

The title Double Standard points directly to contradictions and expectations. What kinds of double standards were you interested in confronting here?

I am always interested in Narrative, but I enjoy more ambiguous and open ended narratives that are rife with contradiction. For example, I like it when something can be simultaneously read as humorous and playful yet violent or perilous. I often rely heavily on beauty to underscore something that is unsightly or a bit grotesque. For me, the “not knowing” and the contradictory elements in my work help to create the tension. My painting is full of that sort of push pull.

The works are dark and moody, but punctuated with really saturated bright colors. Areas are thickly painted and fleshed out, while other parts read as linear drawings in thin dabs of paint. The subjects are often staring blankly and engaged in a self-contained gesture that feels simultaneously familiar and strangely mysterious or foreign.

ENCORE Oil Paint, Acrylic, Cold Wax, Sand on Linen Canvas

At Ron Mandos, the exhibition title suggests change and renewal. What, for you, “won’t be the same again”?

The title “It Won’t Always Be The Same Again” refers to the cyclical nature of history. The words, “Won’t Always” and “Again” seem to clash with each other and refer to the fact that we manage to forget the lessons of the past. There is an expression attributed to Mark Twain that says history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

Many of the things currently unfolding in the world were at a tipping point when i was growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s. A swing toward right leaning authoritarianism, anti-immigrant sentiment, bodily autonomy, the AIDS epidemic are all elements that rhyme with our current news cycle.

The figures in my paintings are conceived almost as character studies from a short film or one act play. They have seen this all play out before, over and over again. Its as if they have run their lines so many times and they have seen this all play out before, that they are left only with jaded stares to greet the viewer.

Showing paintings alongside Mylar works, there’s a play between opacity and translucency. What draws you to that contrast?

The Mylar works are way more loose and gestural. They feel almost like tentative chalkboard drawings. They feel like a nice opposite or antidote to the thickly painted denser works on canvas. In some way they are more simple in execution, but more nuanced symbolically.

They focus more as a sort of close-up shot. Usually the hands and face are prominently shown and the hands are often gesturing in some sort of unintelligible coded language. The mylar film allows me to work on the front and the back of the surface and the smooth translucent properties have an element that reminds me of photographic film. The jagged white outlines of paint and chalk on top of backgrounds consisting of abstracted saturated washes of color read like a negative of a drawing. Having worked in photography for so long, the filmic quality feels like a nice reference materially.

Texture is becoming more present in your work, from cold wax to sand. Do you see this as a purely material choice, or as part of the emotional narrative you want to create?

Both. I like for the paint to feel really thick in some areas (almost like a shallow sculptural relief) and then and scratchy in others. Formally, I enjoy the contrast and texture. But there is also something that happens emotionally when something is rendered either really thickly and caked-on versus something that feels more light and tentative. It acts as a highlighter in a way to underscore the tensions between something that has emotional heft and something that is lighter, humorous, or more etherial.

In your early photographs you multiplied yourself into many roles; now the figures feel more solitary, even dreamlike. What shifted in the way you approach identity?

While working on those early photographs, I felt that the sheer repetition of form and character rendered me as a sort of archetypal stand-in. The goal was to loose my identity in some ways and to take on a universal character.

The multiplicity helped to accomplish this. I was always more concerned with the awkward undecipherable narrative snapshot (almost like a movie still) than i was in representing my own likeness or identity. In my paintings I am still very much interested in this narrative ambiguity, but I feel like that is somehow best conveyed for me through the use of a solitary figure so that the character operates more like an icon in a way. I am still not interested in “individual” traits as much as I am in universal experience that feel somewhat familiar just presented in a new and strange context.

How do you think European audiences are reading your work differently than those in the U.S.?

People in Europe seem to be more open to ambiguity. They are not necessarily looking for labels or for things to be tied up neatly. It does not seem to matter if you work in photography one day, sculpture the next and then painting after that. In America, people often seem confused or don’t know how to reconcile these shifts. Even in popular culture, there seems to be a resistance to people who transition from one genre to another. It seems Americans are alway hoping you will stay in your lane so that they know how to classify you and your work.

Perhaps this is an over simplification, but it is something I have slowly noticed over the years. In Europe, I get asked questions about each individual painting. Each one is regarded as its own entity. In America, I usually get asked about the overall sentiment in a body of work. It just feels like a different way of understanding and absorbing the work.

When you look ahead, do you imagine the Mylar drawings as bridges to painting, or as a language you’ll continue to develop on their own terms?

Sometimes the mylar works become paintings and sometimes the paintings get reinterpreted into mylar works. I feel like they are each distinct formats. Often there are ideas that i have that work well in one but not the other. A certain lack of information translates well in the mylar pieces but not always well in painting. It really just depends. Whether I am working in Painting, Drawing, Photography, Video, Sculpture or Installation, I have always felt as if they are all different languages that help me convey the same stories. As with language there are certain expressions or idioms that work well in one language but cannot be accurately translated into another. That’s how i feel about different media.

There are some things that work better as a drawing or a painting, but not as a photograph...and vice versa. I feel lucky that i am somewhat multi-lingual artistically. The ability to be able to switch back and forth with a level of confidence really broadens my level of inspiration and excitement while working.

If your next exhibition could leave visitors with just one feeling, what would you hope it to be?

I want visitors to leave feeling satiated but wanting more.

54X52 inches (136.75 X 131.5cm), Image credit: Anthony Goicolea

FIN