Diaspora III

Franciso Souto’s “Diaspora III” is a direct response to the political unrest and social urgency in the artist’s native Venezuela. His meticulous, photo-real, colored-pencil drawings are an attempt to offer a collective experience of struggle and perseverance. They are metaphorical references to the many refugees who have left his country, often under the dark of night, leaving only traces of their lives behind.  

The highly varnished, anthropomorphic drawings of dead birds, discarded clothing, fading flowers, and small stones have no background to contextualize them but are embedded in box frames that give them weight and beauty.  They are poetic, indirect testimonies to lives lived.