Born in 1940 in Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, Gustavo Rivera has for the last sixty years established himself as a highly respected abstract painter and printmaker. Rivera belongs to a generation of Mexican artists who emerged between two distinctive eras: one, a society still clearly marked by Mesoamerican traditions, the mestizo land codified by the Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros and Ruffino Tamayo. The second, a postwar culture in the process of becoming truly international, which was moving inexorably beyond the grasp of those traditions as well as their representations, and which came of age during the 1960s. As an artist of this subsequent generation, Gustavo combines iconography of the indigenous cultural heritage of his native Mexico with classic techniques of Post War American Abstraction.
Gustavo is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships and in 2006 the San Jose Museum of Art presented a retrospective exhibition of the artist's work that traveled to additional venues in Mexico and California.
Biography
1940 Born in Villa Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico
TODAY Has resided in San Francisco, CA since 1969
Selected Exhibitions
2006 San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA (solo)
2006 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA (solo)
2005 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
2005 Ex Convento del Carmen, Guadalajara, Mexico. Travel: Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas (solo)
2004 Galerie Dionisi, Hollywood, CA (solo)
2004 The Monotype Marathon," San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
1999 "The Art of Collaborative Printmaking: Smith Andersen Editions," Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV. Travels to de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
1999 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1998 Smith Andersen Editions, Palo Alto, CA (solo)
1996 Galerie Rahn, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
1996 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1994 Wilfred Von Guten Galerie, Thun, Switzerland (solo)
1994 Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1993 Galerie Rahn, Zurich, Switzerland
1993 "12 Bay Area Painters" Eureka Fellowship Winners, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA.
1993 M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1993 Michael Dunev Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1991 Margulis Taplin Gallery, Miami, FL (solo)
1991 "Absence of Proof" Somar Gallery Space, San Francisco, CA.
1990 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
1990 Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1990 "The Painted Monotype" Joan Prats Gallery, New York, NY.
1989 Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, FL.
1988 "Mind and Matter: New American Abstraction," traveling exhibition to Asia, organized by World Print, San Francisco, CA.
1988 "Mano a Mano" Santa Cruz Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California, Santa Cruz and Oakland, CA.
1986 "Art After Eden: An Unnatural Perspective" Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1986 "Alas y Raices" Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA.
1985 "Mexico: The New Generations" San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX.
1985 "Latin American Paining Today" The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA.
1985 "Meridian: Art of the Americas" Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
Literature
1996 Acosta, Juvenal. "Gustavo Ramos Rivera," Galerie Rahn, Zurich,Switzerland (exhibition catalogue).
1991 Santamaria, Guillermo. Eight Contemporary Mexican Artists, Mexico City, Mexico (exhibition catalogue).
1984 Del Conde, Teresa. "The New Generations,"Mexico (exhibition catalogue).