“Where Are You Originally From?”. The artist, River Koelo, investigates the human body, identities, and standards. All paintings show the “immigrant body”, disfigured, out of order and logic, which are reconfigured in the imagination and in the eyes of those who experience the work.
When: April 19th, 2023, from 6pm to 8pm
Where: Consulate General of Brazil in New York
Address: 225 E 41st Street, NY 10017
“Where Are You From Originally?” presents a new series of paintings inspired by my experience as an immigrant and how we respond to questions that can influence our feeling of belonging to a new place or social group.
“In this research, I propose to return the question to the public, raising questions regarding it, as I believe that we are all subject to playing the role of immigrants and natives at some point. In the paintings of this series, the human figure is presented as an “immigrant body”, disfigured, out of order and logic, with different faces and forms that are molded and reconfigured in the interpretation of the other, according to their knowledge and pre-concepts.
When asked about my place of birth, sometimes it feels like I’m not enough as a singular, unique body, representing only my personal history. I, therefore, understand that, regardless of my individuality, the revelation of my country of origin can justify my qualities or defects and influence the way I am perceived and assimilated.
I would like to paint our social and physical bodies in a nontraditional way, to propose different views and perceptions about others and ourselves. My work questions beauty standards through skin color and body shape, thinking about the way it affects our representation in society. I make use of digital and traditional mixed media using experimental brushes and tools to create lines and textures that evoke feelings, emotions, and nature. Identity, self-consciousness, and displacement are the core of my subject matter”.
River Koelo is a New York City-based Brazilian mixed-media artist. His work navigates binaries in search of in-betweenness, investigating the human body within constructions of identity, social space, and beauty standards.