Allí, 2022. Exhibition view at Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan. Photo: Raquel Pérez Puig
Recent works (2019-2022) by Dalton Gata
Dalton Gata graduated in 2005 from the Altos del Chavón Design School in Santo Domingo, DR, with a BFA in Fashion Design. He worked as a designer producing two collections of his own before turning full time into art. His multidisciplinary practice draws from Surrealism, Afro-Caribbean culture, and his background as a designer to reflect upon traditional standards of beauty and gender while celebrating diversity, self-expression, and the importance of acceptance. His bountiful visual world blends popular culture with personal relationships and narratives, memories, internet findings, and experiences, creating a rich and unique universe.
Recent exhibitions include Allí (Galería Agustina Ferreyra, 2022) Diálogos Remotos (Peres Projects, 2020) Swimming on Asphalt While Dreaming of the Sea (Art Basel Miami Beach, with Galería Agustina Ferreyra 2019); The Devil Sees Beauty In A Pair Of Horns, Four Claws, And A Tail (Chapter NY, 2019); The Gaze is Downstairs (The Sunday Painter, 2019) It Ain’t Necessarily So (Galería Agustina Ferreyra, 2019) and La Casa de Dalton (Embajada, 2018). Gata lives and works in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Dalton Gata, Fiesta 1, 2019, acrylic on canvas, 139,7 × 355,6 cm
Allí, 2022. Exhibition view at Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan. Photo: Raquel Pérez Puig
“Dalton's figuration is unmistakable. The freshness and visual impact of his surreal, trans-erotic scenes, nourished by the insatiable Caribbean imagery, make him one of the most audacious artists on the current Latin American scene. This figuration is the language with which he re-imagines queer and popular culture, racial issues, and transformation processes, from an intimate and uplifting approach.”
- Direlia Lazo.
Detail view of Serpiente de dos cabezas, 2022
“Each work is enriched and enhanced by the presence of the other. Seen as a whole, it seems that we are witnessing a fabulous catwalk, where each of these characters represents alter egos of contemporary society. Dalton's work visually accompanies these times of constant transformation and re-imagination: letting go to be and finally exist, comfortably, in our identity bubble. His pieces are an example of the unlimited power of the artist to re-think, represent and normalize what is different. With pink skies, green mountains, divine creatures, mestizas with majestic tails, a blue serpent that rises in a mystical-tropical landscape, the viewer is captured by the uniqueness and preciousness of the scenes, for once there, confronted with the illusion and desire of wanting to be someone else.”
- Direlia Lazo.
Dalton Gata: The Way We’ll Be, 2021. Exhibition view at Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Photo: Zachary Bruder.
Allí, 2022. Exhibition view at Galería Agustina Ferreyra, San Juan. Photo: Raquel Pérez Puig