Douglas de Souza

Biography

Artist Statement:
I like to think about my painting as a way of interconnecting what I experience in everyday life with imagery references
from art history, social media and daily life objects. Through my work, I want to create links between these subjects,
transforming them into a new reference. Once I visualize this new image in my mind, I begin to materialize it, sometimes through sketches and later with digital manipulation. After the image takes form, all concerns go into the making of the painting.

From an in-depth imagery research process, which builds up and overlaps itself, I find myself in images like swans, cars
and motorcycles, as they represent both my conceptual and pictorial interests and help me materialize these references
for this body of work. The representation of glossy, polished and colorful surfaces and the formal composition are based on still-life Flemish baroque as well as illustrations, band posters, album covers, fashion and graphic design mixed as part of pop culture that makes me want to create this universe that would not exist otherwise.

Oil painting, for me, speaks of time, labor and wait. When creating a figurative painting, I am also concerned about what the figures contain no matter how straight-forward the image might seem. There is an interest in this ambiguity in the
paintings. The swan portrayed as a porcelain object, the motorcycle metal surface and the car headlight in a cutout
that suggests an eye, are for me allegories about a gay experience of what masculinity is.

Works
  • purple swan on orange background
    After the Storm, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Cadeau, 2023
    Cadeau, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Do I Chase the Night or Does the Night Chase Me?, 2023
    Do I Chase the Night or Does the Night Chase Me?, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Head Over Heels, 2023
    Head Over Heels, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Malibu, 2023
    Malibu, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, The Stag, 2023
    The Stag, 2023
  • painting of a horse
    The Stallion, 2023
  • orange swan with green background
    The Sun Will Come Up, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Thief in the Night, 2023
    Thief in the Night, 2023
  • painting of a blue totem pole of swans
    Totem Blue, 2023
  • Douglas de Souza, Totem Green, 2023
    Totem Green, 2023
  • painting of a blue totem pole of swans
    Totem Red, 2023
  • painting of a pink swan on blue fabric
    Shadowplay, 2022
Exhibitions
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