What nationality was the artist Rob Gonsalves?

Robert Gonsalves (1959-2017), generally known as Rob, was a Canadian artist. He specialised in magic realism, combining realistic images, either in nature or of buildings, with surreal elements, slewed perspectives creating optical illusions, and things never being quite how they appear. For instance, people appear to ride bikes on treetops, and sunflowers metamorphose into a solar eclipse.

In his early life the influences on his art, rather than being those of conventional art, came largely from the progressive rock album covers of bands like Genesis and Yes. He also studied architecture, a fact that is reflected in the excellent rendition of buildings in some of his works.

Sadly, he suffered from mental illness, and took his own life in 2017. Amongst the tributes to him was a music video referencing his work released in 2018 by Ariana Grande.