Forget dungeons and dragons, Texas A&M University-Kingsville has Dungeons & Daemons.
Dungeons & Daemons is a unique art exhibit created by alumni Dr. Norberto Gomez Jr. and is on view from April 3 to May 16 at the Ben Bailey art Gallery. 
Gomez is an associate professor and chair of the department of visual and performing arts at Montgomery College (MC). At MC, Gomez teaches graphic design, typography, digital tools and illustration and is highly regarded among his colleagues and students.
“He tries a bunch of different things like music, publishing cartoons, working with painting and drawings, and digital aspects. It’s really interesting that he has his fingers in a lot of pies, but his voice is always authentically his own,” Katherine Knight, assistant professor of painting at MC, said.
The Dungeons & Daemons exhibit consists of 18 pieces. Every painting is made with acrylic while one is made with both acrylic and graphite. Each piece has vibrant colors with darker aspects creeping beneath the surface.
“To the ancient Greeks, daemons were spirit guides and forces of nature. They existed between the mortal and deity. When I was younger, I feared being possessed by the much different Christian demons and being watched by spying specters in some kind of limbo with the old curandero acting as a medium. Now I feel nepantla: ‘a psychological, liminal space between the way things had been and an unknown future…a space in-between, the locus and sign of transition,’ where ‘realities clash, authority figures of the various groups demand contradictory commitments’ (Anzaldua). This is also a sign of rock-n-roll and black magic. I’ve always been comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am a new-wave daemon—but I’m also possessed and seek guides and maps. I want to constantly turn them upside down and sometimes I get lost. Here—in the chasms—are various daemons/demons, journeys and struggles through dungeons, borders, and walls, representing the imposing structures, rules and language of psychosocial-political reality colliding with the sublime, mysterious terror of nature,” Gomez said in his artist statement.
On Wednesday, April 3, from 4 to 7 p.m. TAMUK held a reception celebrating Gomez’s return to South Texas and the newest art exhibit. Faculty, staff and students gathered around and viewed the creative, ominous and mystic paintings.
“This is not what I was expecting and I think that makes it even better. My favorite is RIP. It reminds me of a dark comedy. It’s nice to see someone represent the darkness. Most of the time we see artists show Latin culture, which is amazing, but it’s nice to have something quite different and disturbing,” Michael Carranza, a mechanical engineering major, said.
