Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Canadian artist Rob Gonsalves has carefully planned his paintings to combine fine art with mind-bending optical illusions.
Gonsalves’ genre has erroneously been described as surrealism art. He is a huge fan of Salvador Dalí, one of the masters of this art form. Although the Toronto-born artist does seem to flirt with that category, it is more accurately reflected as “Magic Realism.”
Surrealism is generally expressed from memories or subconscious visions. Gonsalves’ work is premeditated and well thought out. Furthermore, magic realism is a relatively new term of art and literature which combines unnatural or magical attributes to real circumstances.
Gonsalves had a career as an architect. He has painted murals and theatre sets. His success at the 1990 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition pushed the Canuck to pursue his craft full time.
