Osvaldo González Explores Light in Architecture With Backlit Packing Tape

Osvaldo González Tape Artworks hero IIHIH

Cuban artist Osvaldo González uses packing tape (or shipping tape) as his brush and backlit plexiglas as his canvas to create glowing artworks and installations that play with both light and architecture.

Osvaldo González Tape Artworks

'La casa del Salto' and a site-specific installation at Tenuta Casenuove
‘La casa del Salto, a site-specific installation made up of 16 plexiglass plates, reproduces the setting of a staircase inside the building of the Tenuta Casenuove winery in Chianti.

Artist Osvaldo González’ unique artworks of interior spaces and windowscapes were created using adhesive packaging tape and clear resin on plexiglas, lit from behind. Those who read this blog may recall that we featured another artist, Mark Khaisman, who also works with backlit packaging tape.

Ozvaldo Gonzalez, 'La casa del Salto' Exhibition view, Tenuta Casenuove, Rome, Italy
Ozvaldo Gonzalez, ‘La casa del Salto’ Exhibition view, Tenuta Casenuove, Rome, Italy

The choice of materials and process largely dictate the appearance, making them as key to his work as the inspiration and result. The more layered the tape, the less translucent the image. This allows the artist to control the amount of light emanating from every inch of the piece.

Osvaldo Gonzalez, Habitat II, 2020
Osvaldo Gonzalez, Habitat II, 2020 photo: Nestor

Empty, but inviting, spaces and stairwells refract and reflect long shadows emphasizing the space and perspective.

Osvaldo González - Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Entre Abantos y Juliana 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Osvaldo González – Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Entre Abantos y Juliana 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Osvaldo González - Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Nuestro nuevo mar 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 74 x 100 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Osvaldo González – Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Nuestro nuevo mar 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 74 x 100 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
OG Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Visitas de domingo 2023
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo – Visitas de domingo 2023

Void of human figures, his works instead emphasize spaces, perspective and shadow play with the linear layers of adhesive. Below are several examples.

Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Hábitos matutinos 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine 100 x 74 cm Photo- Giorgio Benni
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Hábitos matutinos 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine 100 x 74 cm Photo- Giorgio Benni
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Visitas de domingo 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Visitas de domingo 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni

The pieces shown in this post are from the artist’s 2023 solo exhibition “Apuntes de San Lorenzo” unless otherwise noted.

Osvaldo González - Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Nuestra señora de Gracia 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 20 x 20 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Osvaldo González – Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Nuestra señora de Gracia 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 20 x 20 cm. Photo- Giorgio Benni
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- Visitas de domingo 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm
Serie Apuntes de San Lorenzo- top: Visitas de domingo 2023, adhesive tape, Plexiglas, led light, resine, 100 x 74 cm; bottom: Galerie view

Osvaldo González: constructing landscapes (from Galleria Continua)

Osvaldo González’s works focus on the spaces that we recognise and that he, as an artist, is used to through painting, installations or interventions. Adhesive tape is a material that stimulates and enhances his practice: a common material that assists in the achievement of a transformation from “everyday” to a conveyor of poetic ideas. It’s a material that is particularly available and able to encourage evolution within the work. It was with this material that González realised, using light, he could achieve a chiaroscuro effect. Light is also important: it’s a vehicle for building areas of light and shadow and particularly significant from a conceptual point of view. Making site-specific work is the most complete and all-encompassing experience for González. He approaches it as a meeting point while being aware of how each medium is not limited unto itself. Architecture is often the protagonist. His works in their smaller formats are devoid of human presence, creating a contrast in scale between his larger site-specific installations in which whole rooms and architectural features are encompassed in a by now distinctive warm hue that emanates from the adhesive tape. The visitor to González’s exhibitions often finds him/herself inserted into a new environment created by the artist, where light is a constant participant and adopted as a material in itself by the artist.

Artist’s Bio:
Osvaldo González (Camagüey, Cuba, 1982), who graduated from the Higher Institute of Art (2006, Havana), lives and works in Havana, Cuba.

Cuban artist Osvaldo Gonzalez
Cuban artist Osvaldo Gonzalez, photo: Instagram

Amongst his main solo shows, we mention: La casa del Salto (2022, Tenuta Casenuove, Italy); Trip (2021, San Gimignano, Italy); Ámbar (2020, NC-Arte, Bogotá, Colombia); The Beginning of Everything (2019, Servando Gallery, Havana); Autophagy (2016, Servando Gallery, Havana); As it is what it is (2014, Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana); A domestic scene (23 and 12 Gallery, 11th Havana Biennial); Isolated Themes (2010, Luz y Suárez del Villar Gallery, Madrid); Kunta (2009, Guayasamin Gallery, Havana).

His work has been part of group exhibitions, such as: La Brèche and Truc a faire (2021, Galleria Continua, Paris, France); Maintenance ou Jamais! Special project. (2021, Ardian. Paris, France); Circular Viewpoint (2020, Galleria Continua, Havana); Thresholds (2019, Galleria Continua, Havana); Art of Treasure Hunt (Tuscany, various venues, 2019); Wave Cuba (2018, Gare de Saint Sauveur, Lille); Diamond in the rough (2018, Galleria Continua, Havana); Cuba my love (2017, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France); Am I Cuba? (2017, Palazzina dei Bagni Misteriosi, Milan); Treeless Nest (2017, National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba, Havana); The banks of the Acheron (2015, Johnson Pharmacy Museum, 12th Havana Biennial); Reeditus II (2012, Raymaluz Gallery, Madrid); The end of the bullet. A decade of Cuban art (2010, Cuba Pavilion, Havana); Bomba (2010, Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, Havana).

In 2018 he was granted the participation to New York City’s “Residency Unlimited” program by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and won the Acquisition Award for Best Emerging Artist in Zona Maco art fair, Mexico City. A special project with his work, including an artist’s residency, was presented this year in New Delhi, within the framework of the India Art Fair.

Follow the artist on Instagram @osvaldogonzalezaguiar

images and information courtesy of the artist and Galleria Continua