“Painting the Tropics”. by Carol Damian.

The bright beauty of the tropics has inspired artists for generations. Many are just visitors lured by the light and the sea. Others live on the many islands and mainland communities that border the oceans and call the tropics their own. Wherever they are from, they bring a personal perspective and aesthetic to their visual interpretations. William Oberheiser is an artist who can claim genuine inspiration and appreciation for the natural environment of island living, particularly in Cuba, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, and now Miami, places he has lived and experienced throughout his life.

Looking at his bright and colorful paintings, it is evident that he has used the tropics as a key visual element in describing a range of scenes that go beyond the pleasantly pictorial to comment on a variety of social and cultural subjects. At first, there appears to be a simple, almost primitive or naïve approach to his works. However, looks can be deceiving and the frequent appearance of so many birds often contrasts with cityscapes, crowded and alive, and other activities that represent the diversity of daily life, especially in South Florida. Are the birds watching their world disappear? Do the cities tell a new and different tale as they pave over nature? Amidst the exuberance of Oberheiser’s images, there is a story revealed beneath the façade of chirping birds, sunlit skies, and the myriad of activities he paints. Featuring different themes, the paintings often come to life from a perspective less pleasant. There are volcanic eruptions that warn of the political, social, and environmental instability that plague our world. His cityscapes present a dynamic visual urbanism, while asking questions about what lies beneath their dynamics, and sometimes he uses traffic jams to further exacerbate the city’s and society’s woes. Oberheiser’s works offer a bird’s eye view of life below, as if the viewer rides in a helicopter above and looks down. It is left to our imagination to interpret their meaning or just enjoy the vibrancy of his colorful tropical scenes.

Carol Damian, Ph.D. Art Historian, Miami 2020

Some notes on the “Shape Shifters” Exhibit by Marisella Veiga.

If the artist works to give us fresh insight on the life experience, then William Oberheiser has been successful. For joy is evident in these new works on paper, much resulting from his belief that one’s interior and exterior world’s can be harmonized. Then, as if spiritual and material realms were not tough enough to reconcile, he takes on another challenge: balancing of Anglo and Latin cultures.  Too often, their symbols seem to be at odds with one another. Yet in William’s world, they burst with energy and thrive in the same galaxy.

These works are complex, but not gnarled. Oberheiser has overlapped earth tones and fluorescent hues. Spanish and English words call out and humans merge, there is a stronger presence. The fully human go about their business - discovering what is inside their minds or moving to rhythms outside themselves.

Marisella Veiga author of “We carry our homes with us”. 1993

An excerpt from the notes of the “Streamlines” Exhibit by Geno Rodriguez.

William’s work is the result of the “aqui y all” syndrome. He is neither from here nor there or he is both from here and there, simultaneously, depending perhaps on the time of day or his emotional state. His work oddly enough benefits from his rootlessness. His ability to see island life both as an outsider and an insider allows for the creation of a unique body of work, paintings that are both beautiful and tragic, humorous  and ominous.

In Oberheiser’s work, we sense the convergence of a wide range of cultural energies interwoven into a new whole. A vision of a world where cultural and socio-political polarities merge and forge a fabric all the richer for its diversity. In these paintings there exists no hierarchy of form; the modern meets the primitive and the figurative, the abstract. A place where the walls come down and cultural differences energize and complement one another.

The juxtaposition of images are precisely what create tension and dialogue, forming a context which allows the viewer to question our planet’s eco-systems, social habits, economic and political realities. This is what art should do. William’s work makes me wonder not only at life’s multiple realities, but my own restless and insecure duality. The wealth of vision, dialogue and conviction found in his paintings communicate enduring values.

Geno Rodirquez, Director, Alternative Museum, New York, NY.  1990

An Introduction by Luigi Marrozzini.

Quien lo hubiera dicho?, Con ese nombre tan teutonico, William Oberheiser Batista, es posiblemente hoy el artista mas caribeno en Puerto Rico: un Guillermo tan antillano y tropical, como las encendidas puestas de sol en sus pinturas. Desde hace unos anos le hemos estado presentando en varias exposiciones colectivas y esta que aqui presentamos ahora es su primera individual. Siempre he estado facinado por la paleta sensual de este joven expresionista; pero, sin duda alguna, lo mas fascinante de su obra es su interpretacion del tropico, una verdadera colorida y divertida fantasia antillana con toda la follia y el surrealismo tropical. Un tropico, para entendernos, mas que primitivo o a la Rousseau, donde evadir para escaparse a la civillizacion, una completamente eclectico y invadido por esta. Y Oberheiser es un poco el Gauguin revisado y corregido que, en clave contemporanea, no recuenta de ese tropico de cemento, “con palmas entre condominios’” donde los carros y los surfboard en day-glo sustituyen los pacificos animales, abriendo paso a toda una nueva mitologia.

Luigi Marrozzini 1990