artist statement
I want to paint our social and phisical body in a non tradicional way, to propose different views and perception about others and ourselves. My work questions beauty standards through skin color and body shapes to think about the way it affects our representation in the society. I make use of traditional mixed media using experimental brushes and tools to create lines and textures that evokes feelings, emotions and nature. Identity, self-consciousness and displacement are the core of my subject matter.
bio
River Koelo is a Bronx-based brazilian multi-disciplinary artist whose work deals with identity, self-consciousness and displacement. His work navigates binaries in search of in-betweenness, investigating the human body within constructions of identity, social space and beauty standarts. Koelo graduated from the Faculdade Seama in Macapá in 2005, where he studied Social Communication. He studied painting at Parsons the New School for Design in 2016. Since moved to New York in 2015, Koelo is part of Con Artist collective and gallery and have been exhibiting his works through independent art shows around New York such as Unfamous NYC.