José Manuel González
José Manuel González (Cáceres, Spain, 1973) lives and works in Carmona, a beautiful, historic town in the province of Seville, Spain. Although he pursued a degree in law at university, art was always where his true passion lay. A teacher by profession, he is currently employed as Head of Art at a secondary school in Seville, where he has the opportunity to share his talents and creativity with young learners.
Geometry, mathematics and the intimate relationship between art and nature are among the themes that most interest José Manuel. For this reason, he has spent several recent years creating pieces of work that move beyond the two dimensional form of a painting into the realm of sculpture and kinetic art. These objects transform themselves, and thus can be seen as a metaphor for life, changing with time, and reacting to the circumstances that surround and influence them.
After many years of expressing himself via graphic art, painting and design, it is in the world of kinetic art where José Manuel feels he can best convert his talent for precision and vision for grace and movement into a piece of art. New hardware and software technologies, such as Arduino and Processing, have given him the necessary tools to create works of art in motion; pieces which are capable of interaction, that generate sound and change colour, as in nature itself.
José Manuel’s innate childhood desire to create things with his hands was nurtured by his father, who is also an artist. Since those early years he has had the opportunity to develop his skills in many different environments such as: the International University of Andalusia, the Joan Miró Foundation, Media Lab Prado and The Andalusian Centre for Contemporary Art (CAAC), to name but a few.
He has been the recipient of a number of grants and prizes, including the Pilar Juncosa and Sotheby’s grant at the Joan Miró Foundation in Palma de Mallorca; Francisco de Zurbarán - a prize for young artists; and INICIARTE - a grant awarded by the government of Andalusia to realise an artistic project.
His participation in exhibitions, both collective and individual, has spanned over two decades. He has showcased his work in galleries, museums and art fairs in Spain, Portugal, France, the USA, Sweden and Cuba. He is currently preparing for a solo exhibition in Seville.