Antonio † Roybal

Antonio Roybal (born October 1, 1976) is an American fine-art painter and sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Antonio is the son of David and Aggie Roybal, born in the city of "Holy Faith", but raised partially in Southern California. He lived in San Diego during the earliest years of his childhood. He has three sisters. One of his sisters is also a painter and two of his sisters are completely deaf. His Northern New Mexican ancestry can be traced back eleven generations. His Great-Great Grandfather lived with the San Ildefonso Pueblo Indians. They are Ancestors to the Anasazis and once occupied the land where the Nuclear Bomb was developed.

His father is a mathematician and computer scientist who has worked on many top secret weapons projects at laboratories including White Sands Missile Range and Los Alamos National Laboratory. At age 14, Roybal briefly considered The Priesthood and traveled to Portugal on a Religious pilgrimage with Robert J. Fox (one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century).

Roybal studied fine art at The Colorado Institute of Art but is mostly self taught. He apprenticed with French artist Jean-Claude Gaugy and studied Art with Austrian artist Ernst Fuchs at his Villa in the South of France. His debut show was in Payerbach, Austria in 2000. He showed his art for the first time at The Oldest House in the United States in Santa Fe. He currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has a studio in Santa Fe.

Roybal’s work is inspired by Northern Renaissance Art and early Mannerism. His influences are numerous, including Jan Van Eyck, El Greco, and Hieronymus Bosch. Contemporary influences include Ernst Fuchs, Remedios Varo and Mark Ryden. Roybal’s painting technique is modeled after Jan Van Eyck and his followers. His work has gained greater prominence beginning in 2002 with the distinguished honor of being named one of the top 100 contemporary Hispanic artists by The National Hispanic Cultural Center. In 2006, he participated in a group show titled “Life and Liberty After 9-11” at The Las Cruces Museum of Art. Stylistically his work mixes religion, metaphysics, modern symbols such as toys and televisions with elongated stylized figures straight from the Renaissance. Subject matter is influenced by Carl Jung’s work on archetypes and esoteric traditions including alchemy and metaphysics.