I first come across Rob Gonsalves’ The Sun Sets Sail during an art class at some point in my high school years. Like you, I was confused and amazed at what was in front of me.
Earlier today, I was deciding on what my first art focused post could be and came across an article on Gonsalves. The featured image of that article was in-fact The Sun Sets Sail. A quick Google search led me to a webpage full of his works (which is now only accessible through an internet archive)
Look, it’s easy for me to copy and paste bits of his bio for you to read but that’s not what you’re here for.
So here; enjoy my top 5 trippy artworks by Rob Gonsalves.
The imagined optical illusions Gonsalves creates, are nothing short of brilliant. There are thousands of great optical-illusionists (is that even the correct description? it is now.) like Tang Yau Hoong and Julian Beever but what make’s Gonsalves stand out is the fact his images are deliberately planned and result from conscious thought. The use of real-life objects differs his work from surrealism, and put’s it into the ‘Magic Realism’ category. (Yes! That is a real thing)