Guillermo Wagner Granizo

Guillermo Wagner Granizo is one of the world's leading ceramic muralists. His geometric abstractions are positive statements expressed with decorum. He is a deeply intuitive artist whose tile creations reflect both a highly developed sense of tradition and a childlike play of fantasy. His extraordinary sensitivity to color and line produces remarkable harmony resulting in visual pleasures plus insight into the subjects he has portrayed for his viewers. He is particularly adept in capturing the personality of cities. Three San Francisco murals and one of Monterey are excellent examples. In architectural settings, enhanced by imagination, he composes crowds milling about with birds, animals, multi-colored flowers and balloons to further delight the scene. He draws from the richly visual cultural history of Central America and Mexico. Images, internalized in his youth, reappear in his ceramic paintings to create a personal mythology that is, at once, both complex and direct. The excellence of his vision spans the break between twentieth century reality and dream, memory and fantasy.