Art Workshop - Portraiture, Identity & Desire: Observational Drawing

Dates: Tuesday–Friday, July 20–23

This class will explore the traditions of figure drawing from observation and their intersection with concepts surrounding identity and desire. Through drawing from live models, we will interpret approaches to the figure that date back to the early 16th and late 17th century with Caravaggio and Michelangelo, and consider how these techniques can be integrated into our contemporary context. Students will be encouraged, but not required, to incorporate Ox-Bow’s encompassing land as it intermingles with the figure. Along with artists from the Renaissance and baroque periods, we will look at present-day figurative work by artists such as Doron Langberg, Angela Dufresne, Tschabalala Self, and Louis Fratino and examine a few of the many possibilities for figure rendering in contemporary contexts. 

MICHAEL GABRIEL CUADRADO GONZALEZ is a visual artist born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He now lives and works between Chicago and Saugatuck. In 2017, he participated in Ox-Bow’s Fellowship program, and in winter 2020, he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Wassaic Project. He received a BFA in Drawing from Pratt Institute.