Issue #7 - Josias Figueirido - Iterant

“and even you forgot those brilliant flashes seen from afar” -Ruth Stone

Josias Figueirido

ISSUE 7

Untitled, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”

Untitled, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”
Subway Ride, 2016 Oil, acrylic, and enamel on canvas 45” x 60”

Subway Ride, 2016 Oil, acrylic, and enamel on canvas 45” x 60”
More Than One Blind Spot 2, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”

More Than One Blind Spot 2, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”
Have You Always Been There?, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”

Have You Always Been There?, 2019 Oil and glitter on canvas 48” x 40”
Next Level, 2018 Oil, acrylic, glitter, and rhinestones on canvas 84” x 96”

Next Level, 2018 Oil, acrylic, glitter, and rhinestones on canvas 84” x 96”
Global Warning, 2018 Oil and glitter on canvas 84” x 96”

Global Warning, 2018 Oil and glitter on canvas 84” x 96”
Abort Mission, 2018 Oil, acrylic, fabric, glitter, and rhinestones on canvas 84” x 68”

Abort Mission, 2018 Oil, acrylic, fabric, glitter, and rhinestones on canvas 84” x 68”
Paradise Dreamed, 2018 Oil on canvas 48” x 60”

Paradise Dreamed, 2018 Oil on canvas 48” x 60”
Assaulting the Sovereignty of Your Imagination, 2018 Oil, acrylic, and glitter on canvas 56” x 60”

Assaulting the Sovereignty of Your Imagination, 2018 Oil, acrylic, and glitter on canvas 56” x 60”
Blind Spot, 2018 Oil, enamel, and paper on canvas 68” x 66”

Blind Spot, 2018 Oil, enamel, and paper on canvas 68” x 66”
Free Kick, 2017 Oil, oil stick, and fabric on canvas 85” x 70”

Free Kick, 2017 Oil, oil stick, and fabric on canvas 85” x 70”
Enter, 2017 Oil and fabric on canvas with wooden ladder attached 90” x 70”

Enter, 2017 Oil and fabric on canvas with wooden ladder attached 90” x 70”
Plant It!, 2017 Oil on canvas resting on painted clay 77” x 60”

Plant It!, 2017 Oil on canvas resting on painted clay 77” x 60”
The End, 2017 Oil and oil stick on canvas 65” x 80”

The End, 2017 Oil and oil stick on canvas 65” x 80”
I can’t Keep Up with the City, 2016 Oil, acrylic, oil stick, and enamel on canvas 48” x 60”

I can’t Keep Up with the City, 2016 Oil, acrylic, oil stick, and enamel on canvas 48” x 60”

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Josias Figueirido

Artist Statement

My work channels personal and social dilemmas into biographical and fictional narratives. The
figures and scenarios in my work are invented and constructed with an awareness of digital
aesthetics. The space is constantly oscillating between the virtual and the physical world, alluding
to the struggles we face when trying to form an understanding of reality while moving from one
space to the other. Humor and horror are interwoven within the narratives; the same characters,
actions, and situations that amuse us also distress us. The overall psychological mood in the work
suggests that unexpected danger may strike at any moment in an environment that is not as safe
as it appeared.

Blending reality and imagination, my work originates from digital and traditional drawings. The
imagery often evolves during the creative process. It is partly deformed, exaggerated, reduced,
erased, and distorted without losing reference to the collage approach and the digital tools
involved in its preparatory stages. I use an iconography that is largely based on the visual
strategies found in animations and video games, such as saturated colors, symbols, texts,
layering, disconcerting viewpoints, narratives within narratives, and the dry-brush painting
technique that allows for a sense of motion. I carefully consider the flexibility and homogeneity
of the medium I use, and I challenge myself to manipulate it and apply it in experimental ways.
Along with my primary media, I often employ a range of materials such as fabrics, paper, glitter,
and rhinestones that generate a rich tactile surface and induce us to consider the physicality of
the work.

My practice is dependent on and fueled by long periods of constant drawing. My new bodies of
work always emerge from hundreds of drawings that I make with the aim of clarifying my
thoughts and generating ideas. For me drawing is a free, direct, fast, intense, and rudimentary
practice that allows me to get to something new.

About the Artist

Josias Figueirido is an artist from Spain based in Laredo, Texas. He received an MFA from the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (2017), a Post-Graduate Diploma in
Drawing from the Royal Drawing School in London (2010), and a BA in Fine Arts from London
Metropolitan University in London (2008). Figueirido has been an artist in residence at The Fabric
Workshop and Museum (Post-Graduate Apprentice Program), Dumfries House, Moritz-Heyman
Residency, Vermont Studio Center, The Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences, and
Millay Arts.
Working primarily in painting, drawing, and printmaking, Figueirido’s work channels personal and
social dilemmas into biographical and fictional narratives. Combining both humor and horror, his
work addresses recurrent themes such as technology, loneliness, definitions, meaning, war,
power, peace, and love.
Among other group exhibitions, his work has been shown at the Royal Academy (Summer
Exhibition), London, Museo de Artes do Gravado á Estampa Dixital, Artes (Spain), and Portal:
Governors Island art fair, New York. His most recent solo shows include “Pelea en el studio” at
Estudio Abierto in Vigo, Spain, “Give Me A Light That I May Walk Safely into The Unknown” at
Marginal Utility Gallery in Philadelphia, and “Anything Goes As Long As It’s A Joke” at CR Ettinger
Studio Gallery, also in Philadelphia. His work is included in several collections, including The
Horseman Collection of American Art (St. Louis, MO), Paintings in Hospitals Collection (London,
UK), and Francisco Fernandez del Riego Collection (Vigo, Spain).
Among other awards, Figueirido has received a University Creative Project Grant by Texas A&M
International University, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant.
Figueirido teaches painting and drawing at Texas A&M International University, in Laredo, Texas.