Stephan Doitschinoff (1977), Brazilian visual artist, lives and works in São Paulo.

Self-taught, he develops works in painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performances. Awarded “Most Promising Artist” by the APCA (Sao Paulo Art Critics Association), he has held exhibition in institutional spaces like the Irish Museum of Modern Art/Ireland, San Diego Contemporary Art Museum /USA, Fondation Cartier/France, São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (MAM)/Brazil, São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)/Brazil, Afro Museum/Brazil, and The XXII Curitiba International Biennial/Brazil.

Doitschinoff has had two books published by the German Publisher Gestalten: CALMA, the Art of Stephan Doitschinoff (2008), and CRAS (2012). Among his recent projects, the church-sect CVLTO DO FVTVRV stands out with its diverse actions (Marches, Hymns, Church, membership, volunteer desk, neon, videogame) and the installation “Interventu” (2017).

Stephan Doitschinoff's work

Stephan Doitschinoff’s work materialises through many different mediums from painting, installation and public art to video, music and performance. Throughout these approaches there is always a visible uniqueness within it’s content and body of research.

His work carries both cryptic and symbolic messages and what at first glance seems to be a visual narrative impregnated with either religious or dogmatic references, under a deeper look, reveals a process of appropriation of structure and re signification.

Some of the central manifestations in religion and the military are used as support throughout his work, for example: The configuration of the temple, the altar, the procession, the anthropomorphic characters that represent divinities, the uniform, the medals, and the street parades. On the other hand there is no dogma, the content is aimed at promoting reflection and critique, not necessarily connected to religion or the military.

Doitschinoff removes the mystic and ideological contents adding symbols created from personal reflections in accordance to contemporary themes, as the “corporative democracy”, the role of plants and psychoactive substances in western society, and the lack of control caused by strict social systems that do not leave room for an individual’s full self-development.

As the structure of religion and the military are captivating for the general public, Stephan explores them a method of communication

Stephan explores the scenario of religion and the military as methods of communication as these are an universal language with the power to captivate public attention through familiarity on account of their vast presence in society since the beginning of time.

Among his main influences and research references for dialogue at the present moment are the artists Maurizio Cattelan and Mathew Barney, the psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, the physicist Leonard Milodinov and the activist Kalle Lasn.

Text by Nathalia Cruz