DEDICATED to REALISM

Mauricio González’s collection reflects his knowledge and passion for contemporary artwork.

- JOHN O'HERN

Mauricio González came to the U.S. from Colombia 25 years ago. With a successful career in advertising, he has gained extensive experience in art direction, brand strategy and statistical analysis. This skillset was fundamental when he started building a collection that now contains over 350 paintings and other works.

He has applied the same “passion and knowledge discipline” he has in his career to his pursuit of artists. “In advertising, you need to understand the product, the competition and the marketplace,” he explains. “In the art world, it is important to understand an artist’s multiyear performance, his or her ranking among peers, consistency across contests, rising trends and more.

“I love art but I wanted to make sure I was choosing from among the great artists,” he continues. “To that purpose, I started using the power of statistics to help me discover the best living fine art artists on the planet. My statistical analyses were initially a hobby, but I began to realize I could share them with the public and help collectors and artists alike.” This was the beginning of ARTDATAintel, which now has its home on Instagram. González says, “ARTDATAintel started as a small, yet ambitious project over 12 years ago when we began to track different art contests and competitions. Today, we have compiled a robust Art Intelligence Database that explores 350,000-plus entry submissions from diverse, high-profile competitions to identify all the award-winning artists from each competition.