The artist Stephan Doitschinoff speaks about his upbringing, and how childhood and adolescence - as well as the experience of living in many different countries and cities - blend together in his current work.
Stephan Doitschinoff is a self-taught artist who was born in 1977 in São Paulo, Brazil, where he is currently based. As the son of an Evangelical minister, Doitschinoff spent his childhood absorbing the visual vocabulary of religious art. As an artist, he has developed his own unique language and style through imagery that creatively combines Afro-Brazilian folklore with Baroque religious iconography, as well as Alchemic and Pagan symbolism.
Doitschinoff previously created work in the public realm using the street alias Calmafootnotes for event detail (Portuguese for calm), which is also a shortened version of con alma (Latin for with soul). A stunning example of this work is the site-specific public project that Doitschinoff created in the Brazilian countryside of Bahia that embraced the entire surrounding community where he lived from 2005 to 2008. His exhibits at museums and galleries in the US, Brazil, and Europe - including the São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) and the Museum of Contemporary Arts of San Diego (MACSD) - reflect the increasing appeal and prestige of Doitschinoff’s work in the eyes of international media, art critics, and the general public.
