NEW YORK, NY.- Galerie Richard announces the New York debut of Spanish artist Dionisio González. Embodying the roles of utopian/dystopian architect and documentary photographer, González constructs spatially and socially complex worlds that challenge the histories of photography and architecture.

In this exhibition, Galerie Richard presents Favelas, González’s first series from 2004 - 2007, which brought him international recognition and acclaim. Favelas (the Brazilian word for shantytowns) became a seminal body of work for González in which he began his renowned process of constructing and deconstructing photographic space. This body of work marks a critical moment in the artist’s career, exhibited for the first time in New York.

At first glance, the photographs appear to be seductive depictions of urban locations, however, closer inspection reveals an elegantly mediated image constructed by the artist. Provoking a persistent gaze, these images unfold slowly and point to the favela's social condition. Galerie Richard will present nine large format C-prints from Favelascontaining scenes of architectural hybridity in which sleek, Modernist forms project from the shantytowns of Brazil, creating an intersection of social structures. González reclaims the favela, and transforms it into a destination. The works allude to global architecture, or the aftermath of gentrification however, they offer no certainties.

Using a computer, González interweaves imaginary architecture within the structural patchwork of the shantytown, collapsing real and fictive imagery. Architecturally, the compositions evoke the structural logic of the Tower of Babel, the interiors of Mies van der Rohe, and the angular forms of Herzog & de Meuron. The photographs are heavily processed accumulations of time, and information, condensed seamlessly within a single moment. As a post-digital maker, González exploits photography and challenges the medium’s responsibility to documentation and the real.

González’s work has been exhibited at the The Venice Architecture Bienniale, The Heidelberger Kunstverein (Germany) the Landesmuseum Joanneum de Graz, and Hanoi's Museum of the Revolution, bringing him renowned international recognition. He studied at the The Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Seville, where he received a Doctor of Fine Arts. He is the recipient of several major awards including the Gijón Grant of the Municipal Foundation of Culture. His work is a part of many major international private and institutional collections including the Rubell Collection, the Borusan Collection, the Williams College Museum of Art, Massachusetts, and the Coca Cola Foundation.