Oscar Camilo de las Flores: Recent Work

Born El Salvador; lived Canada; lives, works in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Open April 19, 2024

Artist Exhibition Statement

My work has been mostly done utilizing the techniques of drawing which I prefer for its immediacy and printmaking, which was my university major. It has been described as reminiscent of old Flemish printmaking and baroque drawings as well as surrealist with a strong Latin American sociopolitical character, as I am a Salvadorean born Canadian artist.

This virtual exhibit showcases some of my most complex and baroque drawings that can be described as densely elaborated from two separate series done in the past few years.

The one from the Trump series shows in a grotesque and caricaturizing manner the fragmentation and collapse of American society and of its preponderance as an empire. The drawing on childhood migration which is a universal tragedy is a very personal image that relates to my own history as a child refugee from El Salvador. The surreal post-apocalyptic landscapes and melancholic architecture was done months before the Covid epidemic in which I was unexpectedly one of the millions of casualties that survived after been intubated and in a prolonged coma. They represent the desolation and uncertainty of the future; some are ruins and barren landscapes while others are melancholic cityscapes that deal with desolation and the lack of hope.

The larger part of the exhibit is a series of skulls. These works are lighter and less dense drawings that represent in a surreal way the hope of survival and life despite death or beyond death. The various heads expel living creatures and emotions. The idea of transcending death or oblivion has been a fundamental reason behind many artists’ creative processes.

Oscar Camilo de las Flores
April 2024

Download Artist Statement

The phICA Virtual Exhibitions Initiative is made possible through the generous support of Arizona Commission on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts, City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Laurie and Tom Carmody/The Carmody Foundation, Brendan Mahoney and Gordon Street, Bobby Walker and Michael L. Zirulnik, Erin Hubbard, and Ted Decker Catalyst Fund.