GUSTAVO OVIEDO
Gustavo Oviedo is a contemporary artist born in Paris, raised in Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico and living and working in Miami for the last two decades. Oviedo describes his mark-making as a visual language that he discovered and tapped into during his early years working strictly as a graffiti artist growing up in France and later Miami. His work has delveloped from these early creative roots to highly colorful, graphic-oriented forms inspired by his love of the sea. An avid diver, Oviedo finds inspiration directly from the marine ecosphere and Islandia. His work as a muralist, videographer, sculptor and painter centralizes the pivotal role nature plays in human existence. Oviedo's large-scale public murals, short films and paintings reflect his signature stylized forms that exude an electric cartoon-like quality. In his short films — through both visual and sound design — Oviedo presents a dynamic community of otherworldly, undersea creatures and dream-like terrains in which individual inhabitants contribute to daily life.
His work reflects his fascination with the symbiosis and collaboration in the underwater world, where fish and sea creatures incorporate found objects and make them functional in a new environment. Oviedo’s recent investigations specifically incorporate research on the concept of biomimicry and how natural selection in nature can translate to the principles of human engineering. He conceptually and aesthetically centralizes the role nature plays in human existence, opening a dialogue with the public, encouraging them to allow themselves to be influenced by their surroundings, in a symbiotic way, in order to acquire a new percepcion of our environment. Gustavo has published several art books of his shows and participated in many art workshops organized by the Young at Art Museum and De la Cruz Collection. His body of work encompasses numerous group and solo expositions during the last 20 years, some private (Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Chotto Matte Miami, The Standard, The Marseilles Hotel), other corporate (Stella Artois, Xerox, Louis Vuitton). More recently, public commissions (Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center with Miami-Dade County) signed with the artist's distinctive textured moniker “131” signature are part of the artist's legacy.