The School of Art is proud to present Checkpoint: Interactive Artworks & Experimental Play , an exhibition by John C. Gonzalez.
The Ned and Gloria Griner Art Gallery
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January 7 to 29, 2026
Exhibition Reception, Gallery Talk and Art Performance: January 7, 4 to 6 p.m.
About the Artist
John C. Gonzalez is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, sculpture, painting, performance, writing, music, game design, and socially engaged projects. Deeply collaborative in nature, his work often blurs the lines between artist, viewer, and participant, challenging conventional notions of authorship and production. Gonzalez frequently partners with individuals or institutions not traditionally associated with artmaking to create pieces that reflect shared labor, conversation, and experience. These conversations result in works that are as much about the process and relationships as they are about the final product. Through his ongoing exploration of labor, cooperation, and institutional critique, Gonzalez's practice offers a reflective and often playful lens on the social systems that shape artistic and everyday life. Whether building systems that critique their own fabrication, facilitating game-based art experiences, or searching for meaning in collective action, he consistently seeks to expand the role of the artist beyond the studio and into the shared spaces of work, play, and community. Gonzalez lives in Rhode Island and teaches drawing and game design at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.
The exhibition Checkpoint: Interactive Artworks & Experimental Play will include several interactive and game-adjacent artworks in the galleries. These works will include images, performance, and site-specific works that will solicit viewer engagement and provide space for unexpected connections and exchanges.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday: 10 A.M. - 4 P.M. Closed weekends and all Ball State breaks and holidays.
Past Projects
Collaborative Garden, a site-specific installation composed of living plants, mulch, and gravel, was created in 2017 for Gonzalez’s solo exhibition Works Well with Others at Brown University’s Bell Art Gallery. Developed in close collaboration with the university’s landscaping staff, the project invited these workers to step outside their typical support roles and become co-creators. Rather than following a predetermined plan, the landscapers were given the freedom to design and construct a living garden of their own vision within the gallery space, transforming their everyday labor into an act of artistic authorship.
Documentation from Excavating Herring Cove, performance in Provincetown, MA, 2012. On a beach slowly being overtaken by the ocean, the artist spent a day excavating a condemned beach house in search of material traces of its past. Found objects were documented and displayed onsite, inviting visitors to engage, ask questions, and participate in unearthing memories that might otherwise forever be locked away within the dunes of Cape Cod.