Caronte, 2024. Feathers attached to cold-rolled and plasma-cut steel sheets are welded onto steel pipes with a leather harness wrapped in a steel chain. During the solar eclipse on the evening of April 8th, 2024, artist Izai Gonzalez performed an act of acceptance and grief by a trial of fire with his grandmother, as the sole audience member.
Caronte, 2024. Official Film
How To Eat A Human Being, 2025. Cold-rolled steel sheets cut, welded, and weathered with patina. Spear made of solid steel articulated through plasma cutting, welding, grinding, polishing, and aged with patina. Jointed poleyn and greave forged with heat, weathered with patina, raised and shaped through hammering. Burned wool adapted in fire. Physical articulation of the transition from adolescence into adulthood. A confusing period in life as I prepared to graduate from university and face the world alone. This work is inspired by a social media trend among young men, "Imagine bleeding out here." Usually depicted through beautifully surreal and lonely landscapes that latch onto the primal urge that young men feel to sacrifice themselves for something much larger than themselves. With much to fight for in this new chapter of my life, there was no option but growth. A boy becomes a man when he realizes he has no enemies and puts down arms with the intention of letting go of the war within him. My upbringing was the construction of a warrior and a protector. I was not taught, but battle-hardened. The extremities of my youth had later paralyzed me, forcing an evolution in my being. Daunting, tall, war-torn pillars of destruction that inhabit the foundation of my disposition are left behind, along with the delicate, singed blankets I once coddled and the torturous arms I traded them for. Raised by wolves, yet I still cheat like a man—spear and armor representing the insecure defenses I once relied on in the aim of self-preservation and saving those I cared for. In the aftermath of non-political warfare, I cease licking old wounds to prepare for the next step.
Chiro, 2025. Cold-rolled steel sheets cut, pierced, and riveted into an origami rocket with exhaust made from tempered plasma-cut cold-rolled steel sheets welded to a steel base.
'Paid for by the Environmental Defence Fund', 2024. Acrylic on grey stretch cotton poplin sewn onto muslin drape — 28 x 60 in.
The Prince Was Born, 2024. Acrylic on canvas — 72 x 74 in.
The Race For God, 2024. Acrylic on maroon cotton with plastic wedding veil — 46 x 125 in.
Father, 2024. Acrylic on canvas — 72 x 74 in.
Mother, 2024. Acrylic on pink cotton elastane with duck tape — 16 x 42 in.