The body of my work focuses on concerns with the depictions of Mexican-American identity in the United States. I work on canvas, paper, comic books, and various surfaces for murals or paintings. I celebrate, question, and critique various elements used to "brand" culture such as popular iconography, externally imposed generalizations, and tropes.

Ricardo "NACO" Gonzalez is an artist from Blue Island, Illinois (near south side Chicago) with a B.F.A. from the American Academy of Art and a current MFA fellowship recipient from Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gonzalez is a teaching/working artist, he often creates artwork to display in alternative spaces. Gonzalez participates in areas/neighborhoods in which inhabitants may not always get exposure to art. The artist teaches in art centers, schools, and informal spaces to better communicate his abilities and pass along his appreciation for the arts. Ricardo's work is often visual art, he paints, draws on various surfaces, pastes on public walls, and creates paper mache scultpures/piñatas.

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