Douglas de Souza (born 1984, Blumenau, Brazil) is a Brazilian artist living and working in São Paulo. Working primarily in oil painting, de Souza develops a practice marked by emotional intensity and a chromatic brilliance that recalls the sharpness of digital imagery. Drawing from the visual language of mass culture, kitsch, and consumer fetishes-ranging from porcelain figurines to chromed automotive surfaces-his work interrogates the construction of identity, desire, and power.
Central to de Souza's practice is a sustained exploration of dualities: fragility and strength, virility and delicacy, surface and vulnerability. His paintings often depict materials that appear polished, hard, and resistant, yet remain perpetually susceptible to damage or collapse. Through this tension, symbols of power merge with ornamental softness, suggesting that the surface functions as a fragile skin-one that protects, conceals, and ultimately reveals what lies beneath. Approached through a queer perspective, de Souza subverts normative readings of masculinity and beauty, positioning desire not as spectacle or anesthesia, but as a charged field of contradiction that resists cisheteronormative frameworks.
His solo exhibitions include Men in Love, curated by Domenico di Chirico at Claraboia, São Paulo (2025); I Am Not the Man You Think I Am at Galeria Cavalo, Rio de Janeiro (2024); Turmoil at Kupfer Project, London (2024); Rush Rush at Good Mother Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Domino Dancing at Gruta, São Paulo (2023); and Don't Rain On My Parade at IRL Gallery, New York (2022).
De Souza's work has been featured in group exhibitions at Gruta, São Paulo (2025); Yudian Gallery, Hangzhou (2024); Suppan Gallery, Vienna (2024); Museu Paço das Artes, São Paulo (2024); Open Gallery, Long Beach (2024); Espaço Cama, São Paulo (2023); EDJI Gallery, Brussels (2023); Primary Projects, Miami (2023); Wespace Gallery, Shanghai (2022); Anita Schwartz Gallery, Rio de Janeiro (2022); Casa da Luz, São Paulo (2021 and 2019); Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2019); and Atelier 397, São Paulo (2019).
He has participated in international art fairs including Art021 with Wespace Gallery, Shanghai (2022), as well as major Brazilian fairs such as SP-Arte with Galeria Cavalo (2025, 2024), ArPA with Galeria Cavalo (2024), and ArtRio with Galeria Anita Schwartz (2022). His work has been featured in Amarello Magazine No. 49 (2024) and ELLE Brasil Men (2022). From 2023 to 2024, de Souza completed a three-month artistic residency at the Kupfer Project in London.