A Forest Of Dreams — Venezuelan Artist Gerardo Rosales’ Arresting Houston Exhibition Makes You Think About Identity

Forests, like identities, can be hard to map. They grow in layers, reveal themselves slowly, and hold deceptively more than what is visible. In “El Bosque,” showing at Laura the Gallery in The Heights through August 23, artist Gerardo Rosales draws on the lushness of nature to build something metaphorical and deeply human: a forest of selfhood.

Between vibrant leaves and textured surfaces, stories of sexuality, exile and resilience take root. 

Born in Venezuela and based in Houston, Rosales is a multidisciplinary artist who turns the visage of folk traditions, religious symbolism and domestic craft into a subversive site of inquiry. Whether it’s painting, installation, or mixed media, his art operates at the intersection of beauty and critique — where playful ornamentation gives way to deeper reflections on self discovery, identity and belonging.

For more than 20 years, he’s balanced a dual life as both artist and educator — shaping students in classrooms while developing a practice informed by queer resonance, cultural symbolism and lived experience. Born in Venezuela and initially self-taught, Rosales formalized his training at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plásticas Armando Reverón in Caracas before earning his MFA from Chelsea College of Art in London.

His work, vibrant and even psychedelic, has appeared in prominent spaces throughout Latin America and the United States, including Houston’s own CAMH, the Moody Center, The Blaffer, the Houston Botanic Garden, and major museums in Caracas and Maracay. Today, his art lives in collections as diverse as the McNay, the Bank of Venezuela, the Transart Foundation, the Houston Endowment and the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Whether through paint or Aluminum Dibond, Rosales uses his sharp critical eye to create work that looks like celebration but functions as clandestine confrontation, quietly holding something more evocative beneath the surface. 

“Gerardo grew up in an era where you just couldn’t be out and be OK, right? So, he sort of builds on this feeling of maybe masquerading, feeling one way, but having to blend in,” Laura Burton, owner of this Houston art gallery and curator of the Rosales exhibit, says. “A lot of the show and a lot of his work has to do with that too. Finding ways to blend in — safety, in that, but expression as well.” 

Since opening her studio in December of 2023, this is the seventh art exhibit Burton has held. She walked me through the gallery, giving the lowdown on each piece. The more I looked, the more I caught — not only pertaining to the physical layering and all the standout motifs, but the quiet intentions. And that’s kind of the point.  

“Gerardo is truly a hometown hero,” Burton tells PaperCity. “His work is joyful and exuberant, yet deeply layered with imagery, symbolism, and meaning.” 

Saturated in a vivid orangey red, Faun draws the eye immediately. The figure, half-faun, half-human, seems suspended in the act of becoming. The bold coloring strips away any illusion of neutrality. It demands attention, framing the act of transformation as both mythic and human.    

“There are animals morphing into humans, and humans into animals,” Burton says. “It’s all about transformation and a meditation on a transitional moment in his own life.”

Burton also delves into the meaning of El Bosque (Shedding Skin), translating to “The Forest.”  

“As a gay man of his generation, he’s exploring themes of queer solitude,” Burton says. “But it’s not exclusive to queerness — many men, as they age, experience that same solitude. His work weaves these personal reflections into a rich tapestry of references.”

Cruising Utopia With Gerardo Rosales 

Aesthetically, Gerardo Rosales sometimes looks to Italian architect and designer Gio Ponti, whose bold use of geometric shapes and pattern can be seen across his iconic villas. In Rosales’s work, this can be seen through his Pac-Man looking circles in El Bosque (Shedding Skin). On a more philosophical level, he feels a deep connection with Cuban-American author and fellow queer thinker José Esteban Muñoz, whose work explores queerness as both identity and future. 

“In Cruising Utopia, José Esteban Muñoz frames cruising as a search for queer possibility — a horizon we move toward rather than a fixed destination,” Burton notes. “In the forest, in these moments of truth, you’re not blending in; you’re imagining and inhabiting an identity — and a future — that is uniquely your own, apart from the heteronormative.”

It’s no surprise that nature plays such a central role in his work. After all, Gerardo Rosales is known to walk Houston’s Memorial Park at sunset, a quiet ritual that mirrors the sanctuary he creates for his creatures. The faun, the mosquito, the coyote, they all find refuge in his world. Even the serpent, notorious symbol of deception, takes on an entirely new meaning centered around Rosales’ own interpretation of the animal — solitude, meditation and pathfinding.  

“Each artist has their own visual lexicon,” Burton says. “A language of symbols whose meanings are deeply personal and often known only to them.”

What’s so particularly striking about this exhibit is the softness of the gallery contrasted with the complexity of the work. It’s like you walk into an airy, easy bungalow and then are immediately struck by what’s hanging on the walls. And long after you’ve left the art gallery, it follows you quietly. Like a scent you can’t quite name.

Laura (the gallery) is open by appointment and is located at 1125 E. 11th Street in The Heights. See Gerardo Rosales’ exhibition through Saturday, August 23. For more information, go here.