René Treviño

About the Artist

René Treviño was born in Kingsville, Texas.  He received his BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in 2003 and his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2005. He has shown at the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Goliath Visual Space in Brooklyn, NY; White Box in New York, NY; the Delaware Center for Contemporary Art in Wilmington, DE; the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA; the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA; and Pentimenti Gallery in Philadelphia, PA.  He was also included in the 2007 WPA/Corcoran OPTIONS Biennial in Washington DC and was awarded a 2009 Baltimore Creative Fund Individual Artist Grant and won the 2009 Trawick Prize. Additionally he has been an Artist in Residence at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills, GA; Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD; and The Studios of Key West in Key West, FL. His work has been featured in Art Papers, New American Painters, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, Philadelphia Enquirer, Washington Blade, Washington Post, Dallas Observer, D Magazine, Art F City, as well as several online publications. Trevino currently resides in Baltimore, MD and teaches at Towson University and MICA, and is represented by the Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, TX.  

Artist's Statement

History is subjective; there are so many blurred lines and so much distortion. Context and point of view are very important; one person's hero is another person's villain…it depends on who tells the story. As a gay Mexican-American I have always felt excluded and under-represented by history. By using a historical context as a backdrop for my work, I can reweave these "lessons" of the past. My work is an attempt to make our already complicated history even more complicated. The more layers that I present, the closer I can get to something that might resemble truth. My process for creating the work is labor intensive; the work is very precise and graphic, and has often been mistaken for silk-screens or digital prints. In fact, the work is meticulously hand-painted with acrylic on Mylar. Upon careful inspection, viewers can see all of the built up, tiny brushstrokes and my hand and process in creating the paintings. Throughout my work are themes of identity; I am interested in challenging traditional ideas of race and sexual orientation. I feel compelled to make thoughtful and beautiful work that confronts societal assumptions and gives new insight into our human experience. My artwork addresses a personal quest for heroism and bravery as well as a need to define my place in the world.