GUSTAVO OVIEDO

United States

Born in Paris, Gustavo, grew up across Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico, and has called Miami and the surrounding ocean and basin his home as well as his studio for the past two decades. His creative journey spans diverse mediums and passions: from avid diver to skilled muralist, visionary videographer and innovative artist.

Initially drawn to abstract murals, Gustavo’s artistic trajectory has blossomed into vibrant, graphic-driven forms that echo his profound connection with ocean life. His oeuvre delves with curiousness into the intertwined relationship between the sea, its marine ecosystems and our effect upon them. His approach is through an almost impossible palette, but that exists beneath the waves. The almost neon shapes that seem to float before us come to life on dry land.

Through expansive public murals, evocative short films, intricate sculptures, and expressive paintings, Gustavo explores themes of symbiosis and collaboration under the sea.

Central to his artistic narrative is the transformative power of marine life, where fish and sea creatures ingeniously integrate found objects into their habitat, creating functional ecosystems anew. His short films further amplify these themes, weaving together mesmerizing visual and auditory elements to portray a dynamic undersea community. Within these cinematic explorations, Gustavo conjures otherworldly landscapes inhabited by creatures whose communal interactions mirror our own social dynamics.

Gustavo’s artistry essentially transcends traditional boundaries, inviting us into a realm where imagination, nature, and human perception converge to celebrate the beauty and complexity of life beneath the ocean’s surface in all its vibrant chromatic spectrum.

WORKS

Binary Cloud

2021
Wood, spray paint, & acrylic paint, 43” x 30” x 7”

Biomorphic (Sculpture)

2021
Wood, spray paint, & acrylic paint, 48” x 48” x 7”

Galactic Years

2023
Acrylic on canvas, 72” x 96”

Unified Field

2023
Acrylic on canvas, 72” x 96”

Poco Floro

2022
Acrylic & spray paint on canvas, 40” x 60”

Biomorphic

2021
Acrylic & spray paint on canvas, 36” x 36”

Nebula Dreams

2022
Acrylic & spray paint on canvas, 36” x 48”

Bad Influence

2023
Acrylic & spray paint on canvas, 24” x 24”

Abyssopelagic

2023
Acrylic paint & silver ink on canvas, 24” x 24”

Repetition and Change

2024
Acrylic on canvas, 12” diameter

Generative Adversial Network

2024
Acrylic & spray paint on canvas, 30” diameter

Dreams of the Future

2024
Acrylic on canvas, 72″ x 96″

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GUSTAVO OVIEDO

UNITED STATES & FRANCE

My process starts with the observation of nature, and most of the time this happens when I take my boat out to go dive the reefs of South Florida. I’m interested in the natural mechanisms I see on display there and also the controlled random aesthetics of everything that is alive.

Form and function are other aspects that interest me when I document what I see underwater. Marine species that take over human debris and cohabitate is something that I use to create abstract narratives that symbolically emulate those phenomenons. These abstract narratives can be happy accidents or preconceived plans.

Sometimes I feel that the iconography I explore doesn’t belong to me as much as to a human subconscious visual inheritance, as if these shapes were embedded in our DNA, and I’m just tapping into that; interpreting it on canvas .

Sometimes I paint patterns made up of repetitive individual forms, sort of like how coral polyps make up colony structures. I noticed this parallel to my work, and that was a reminder that, whether conscious or not, nature guides my work and visual language.

I’ve developed these various shape families throughout the years, as if they were separate species of a made up ecosystem.

The more I’ve learned and practiced the more complex and refined they’ve become, it often reminds me of the process of evolution in general. These are some of the phenomenons that interest me and that I often apply to the concepts of my paintings and sculptures.