A Kind of Magic

Rob Gonsalves’s mind-bending and stunning paintings invite viewers to step into the magic realm of his unique Magic Realism.

“It’s a kind of magic; one dream, one soul, one prize, one goal, one golden glance of what should be”… sing “The Queen” in their famous song. And, indeed, it is in a kind of magic that we are about to enter taken by the talent of Rob Gonsalves.

Born in 1959 in Toronto, Canada, Rob Gonsalves is a unique artist in his style, which has granted him worldwide applause and a prominent position among the distinguished gallery of names dedicated to the movement known as “Magic Realism”, such as René Magritte or Escher.

In fact, his keen interest in drawing from imagination started quite early in his life and it was only improved as he developed awareness of perspective techniques, which allowed him to start creating paintings and renderings of buildings. Soon he would be drawn to Dali’s and Tanguy’s surrealism, and then to those who would, in fact, become the strongest references to his artistic work: Magritte and Escher.

After a first short period working as an architect and having become quite successful with his “trompe-d’oeil” murals, Rob Gonsalves definitely turned exclusively to painting. His mind-blowing and extremely impressing art works challenge viewers by creating optic illusions which make them question the multiple stories they seem to be telling spectator.

Gonsalves states, “I enjoy painting images that make a connection between the human built environment and what occurs in nature, and this was the starting point for developing an image that expresses my affinity for what are thought of as mutually exclusive places. One of the characteristics that forests and large cities share in common, that I particularly like, is a dense collection of monumentally high structures”.

Gonsalves’s objective may be to offer viewers a magic realm made of fantastic imagery in which what, at first, appears to be, becomes something else in the process of observation. Objects evolve to become natural elements, people become flying birds, bridges become archways to heaven, flowers become human beings, images sinuously melting into one another.

Rob Gonsalves’s mesmerizing works seem to play tricks at viewers who, in turn, get fascinated by his skillfulness and talent and let themselves be transported from reality to that wonderful world where planned illusionist devices create “a kind of magic” and where nothing is quite what it seems. Gonsalves is the master illusionist and magician who “gives us the glance of what should be”, who attempts to depict human beings’ wish to believe in the impossible, to dream the impossible dream…