The gallery of Dallas' Latino Cultural Center (LCC) showcases works by various influential Latino artists.

The works displayed are always interesting ... but not always "pretty."

Currently showing at the LCC is "Baroque on the Border," a collection of work by Rigoberto A. Gonzalez that centers on the ugliest part of life on the border between the United State and Mexico.

Gonzalez, who is based out of Harlingen, Texas, is originally from Reynosa, Mexico. He did his undergraduate studies at The University of Texas Pan American and earned a Master of Fine Arts from The New York Academy of Art in 2004.

Decapitation, shootings and kidnappings abound in this collection which will be on display until January 10.

With this series, Gonzalez attempts to revive the violent nature of many paintings coming from the Baroque period in art and translate it to the very real situation that now occurs in scenes played out over and over again on the border.

"After spending two years in graduate school at The New York Academy of Art, González moved back to his hometown of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico and followed news coverage of beheadings due to cartel violence," the LCC noted in announcing the exhibit. "The images reminded him of the 17th century Baroque paintings of the beheading of John the Baptiste and David holding the head of Goliath. González draws particular inspiration from the works of the Italian artist Caravaggio and the Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera. By merging centuries-old European vernacular with contemporary narratives, González draws an historical allusion between the propensity for harsh violence in religious and secular paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries and the intense brutality of some border regions tday."

Gonzalez expands on this mixture of themes from different time periods.

"One thing that I liked about those artists and the way they influenced me is that their artwork is giving you a very aesthetic version of violence," Gonzalez said in a video piece on his work. "It's not a documentary in depiction of violence. The depiction of violence in those paintings is 'verse.' It's a little bit 'cleaned up' but yet in a way it reveals a deeper truth. And that's what I'm trying to do with my work."

The centerpiece of the collection is a massive triptych entitled "On the 17 of February of 2009 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico." The large painting depicts the aftermath of a running gun battle which occurred in Gonzalez's hometown on that date which left five police officers and five suspected cartel members dead, along with 20 wounded, according to press reports at the time.

Accompanying the gargantuan work are very small paintings, five in total, which are close-ups of decapitated heads. Four of them reading, "Para Que Aprendan a Respetar" (So that they learn to be respectful) 2-5, and another simply entitled "Woman Beheaded."

Other large paintings, such as "Levanton" (The Kidnapping) and "Contrabando y Traicion" (Contraband and Treason) depict acts of violence in progress.

In contrast, "La Llorano" and "La Guia," seem rather tame, simple depictions of struggle and despair on the faces of people midstream of the Rio Grande, but dark and foreboding in theme nonetheless.

In the midst of it all is one piece depicting a jovial accordion player, which would represent the story-teller of Corrido lore. And that is the goal of the artist according to his statement on the exhibit.

"In my paintings I appropriate and connect the depiction of violence by Caravaggist, Neapolitan painters with the portrayal of violence in corridos," Gonzalez explains on his personal Web site. "A corrido is a Mexican folk ballad in the past singers would document events in their communities or the lives of heroes from the Mexican revolution but recently they have focused on the lives of drug smugglers. Essentially a corrido tells a story, it is a narrative. There is usually a violent theme to a corrido; However, I am not interested in a journalistic version of violence. Corridos like Caravaggist paintings are not prose but verse."

As mentioned earlier, "Baroque on the Border" is not a "pretty" exhibit, but it is "compelling." Gonzalez makes use of bold strokes and stark contrasts with very dark colors to allude to a nightmarish netherworld that exists on our doorstep to the South.

The exhibit was funded by the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Friends of the LCC.