Miami artist Fuenmayor disrupts conventional conversations. Now he’s aiming at NFTs

Miami artist Gonzalo Fuenmayor didn’t purposely set out to become a disruptor. But a disruptor he is.

His years as one of a handful of Latin masters students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston shifted his outlook, he says. The Colombian-born artist realized he was unwittingly buying into formulas imposed by his teachers and colleagues. “ ‘Yes, I am from Colombia’ and the teachers are saying to me, ‘You are making paintings about violence. You are identifying with the drugs and violence of your country.’ They were assigning all of these themes in the work that I wasn’t attempting.”

He rebelled against that he terms as “the clichéd conversation” of sunsets, lush foliage and bright tropical hues, turning instead to the sparseness of black on white.

Now he exclusively works with charcoal on paper. Still, within the charcoal drawings, there are layers and depth with intricate detail. At first glance, his portrayals appear to be realistic, but a closer look reveals a surreal absurdity.

Many of his works incorporate animals, people, and objects in unexpected combinations and contractions. Underlying it all are questions of belonging and exploration of “how to fit in— or if fitting in is even an option.”

It’s a natural question for someone living in the blurry space between cultures. Fuenmayor, now 45, came to Miami more than a decade ago, after meeting the woman now his wife, Catalina, in Barranquilla, Colombia, during a sojourn there. Their two boys, Martin, 11, and Manolo, 9, were born and raised in Miami.

He describes his approach as “a big mish mash of everything that happens and then it’s distilled. Fixing breakfast for my kids. Driving. Reading the news. Listening to music. It’s about being with myself in the world and reacting to it,” he said.

READ MORE: Buy these NFTs, and you’ll support Miami artists

The pandemic evoked a distinct response, depicted in a 2020 series featuring seals at play with the word “Obey” emblazoned on the image. It was his way, says Fuenmayor of dealing with the pandemic’s noisy onslaught of ceaseless information.

“The seals exemplify animals that are trained to perform these absurd tasks for humans. This was my way of adding to the conversation that there was this idea of performing one’s identity while the system or culture was trying to keep you doing a specific task. How to behave, how to perform one’s identity. To get vaccinated, to not get vaccinated, to vote, not to vote. Having ‘Obey’ in a font that is recognizable as a traffic sign added to the idea of control, too.”

The drawings of animals and odd settings, at times among atmospheric events, adds whimsy to his work — often floating on an undercurrent of dark humor. “There isn’t one reading a viewer should have when seeing the work per se.” He likens it to throwing banana peels in front of one of his pieces, “so you can slip in different directions.”

Through his career, one teacher’s words have stayed with him: “You want to make work to be creatively misunderstood by others.”

Those who want to ponder such works in their own home pay $300 to $60,000 for an original. NFTs offer ownership at a lesser price. His first NFT, being released in April as part of the Miami Herald Collection in cooperation with Oolite Arts, will start at $75 in an edition of 100. Fuenmayor has twice been awarded residencies by Oolite, which recognizes and supports South Florida artists.

For Oolite president and CEO Dennis Scholl, Fuenmayor clearly belongs in the NFT revolution.

“He simply picks up a piece of charcoal and changes your view on everything. That’s how he makes his work,” Scholl said. “And to take a simple delivery mechanism like charcoal and turn it into an incredibly complex delivery mechanism like an NFT is extraordinary.”

Fuenmayor, the disruptor, believes the NFT movement will go beyond delivery eventually to transform the art marketplace.

“There is this whole pyramid of artists and curators, galleries, and museums. NFTs will create its own structure,” he says. “Ten to 20 years from now, it will be a different game.”

AT A GLANCE:

Upcoming shows:

• “Simulacros,” solo exhibition, through April 16, and again May 12 through June 18, at Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid, Spain.
• Summer 2023, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.

Miami Herald Collection: Launches April 22 at nft.miamiherald.com; sign up opens April 1.

Website: gonzalofuenmayor.com

This story was originally published April 4, 2022 at 7:00 AM.