Bio
Doug Welsh (b. 1991, Miami, FL) lives in Houston, TX. Recent exhibitions include the Independent Art Fair, F (NYC, 2024), Form + Void, Lonestar College North Harris Fine Arts Gallery (Houston, 2024) re-rite, Art League Houston (Houston, 2023), Angel Dust, Pablo Cardoza Gallery (Houston, 2023), Ignition, The Jung Center (Houston, 2023), and HARRY SMITH’S SHIRT, F (Houston, 2023). Welsh has organized numerous shows, including leftovers, landSPACE : a kunsthalle (Austin, 2024), Its OK To Feel This, LRT Gallery (Houston, 2024), orbit, ESS Gallery 1 (Houston, 2024), and The Transformation Is, ESS Gallery 1 & 2 (Houston, 2023). His art criticism appears regularly in Glasstire, the Texas online Arts journal. Welsh teaches art at Lone Star Community College and is co-founder of the Elgin Street Summer Intensive, a program for MFA candidates at the University of Houston.
Artist Statement
Navigating the world with music as my companion, I listen to one song on loop until a painting is complete. My ongoing body of work – Life Raft – is ritualistic and anchoring. I embrace a philosophy of stability and harmony in my life, my practice, and as a guiding compositional strategy within the paintings themselves. The color and spatial relationships in my paintings can be lyrical, harmonious, synchronized, tenuous, or tumultuous, depending on my state of mind. Ultimately, I seek balance in the interaction of these elements within my paintings, and within myself. Life Raft is what keeps me afloat.
Selected Bibliography
Welsh, Douglas, ‘My Most Recent Life-Altering Art Experience,’ 1.29.25
Welsh, Douglas, ‘“The Hand is Pinker Than the Eye,” at Jonathan Hopson Gallery,’ https://glasstire.com/2024/11/24/the-hand-is-pinker-than-the-eye-at-jonathan-hopson-gallery/ — 11.24.24
Welsh, Douglas, ‘“The Antenna Show” at LAURA, Houston,’ https://glasstire.com/2024/10/27/review-the-antenna-show-at-laura-houston/ — 10/27/24
Welsh, Douglas, ‘“THIS SIDE UP” at the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft,’ https://glasstire.com/2024/04/22/review-this-side-up-at-the-houston-center-for-contemporary-craft/ — 4.22.24
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Tony Feher’s “Drawn from Life” at Josh Pazda Hiram Butler, Houston,’ https://glasstire.com/2024/01/03/review-tony-fehers-drawn-from-life-at-josh-pazda-hiram-butler-houston/ — 1.3.24
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Cast-offs Come Together in “Bookends” at Basket Books & Art, Houston,’ https://glasstire.com/2023/11/25/review-cast-offs-come-together-in-bookends-at-basket-books-art-houston/ — 11.25.23
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Patrick Renner: Once & Future Architecture at Architecture Center Houston,’ https://glasstire.com/2023/08/11/review-patrick-renner-once-future-architecture-at-architecture-center-houston/ — 8.11.23
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Jonathan Faber’s “Alluvial Plane” at David Shelton Gallery’ https://glasstire.com/2023/05/05/jonathan-fabers-alluvial-plane-at-david-shelton-gallery/ — 5.5.23
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Mara Held and Julia Kunin: Kaleidoscope Eyes at McClain Gallery,’ https://glasstire.com/2023/03/13/review-mara-held-and-julia-kunin-kaleidoscope-eyes-at-mcclain-gallery/ d – 3.13.23
Welsh, Douglas, ‘Like No One Else: Alexis Pye at Lawndale Art Center,’ https://glasstire.com/2023/03/05/review-like-no-one-else-alexis-pye-at-lawndale-art-center-houston/ – 3.5.23
New American Paintings #162 (juror – Tyler Blackwell), https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/issues/162
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Lifelike, F, Houston, TX
2024 re-rite, Art League Houston, Houston, TX
2021 Life Raft (curated by Zoie Buske), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Conversations at Home (with Terry Suprean), landSPACE: a kunsthalle, Austin, TX
2024 Form + Void, LSC North Harris Fine Arts Gallery, Houston, TX
2023 Crossroads (curated by Jonathan Paul Jackson), Big Medium, Austin, TX
2023 Angel Dust (with Alyssa Kazew and Dylan Roberts), Pablo Cardoza Gallery, Houston, TX
2023 Ignition, The Jung Center, Houston, TX
2023 Shifting Systems (with Garrett Griffin), Jardín, Houston, TX
2023 HARRY SMITH’S SHIRT, F, Houston, TX
2023 Before Apollo, Before the Sun, Galveston Artist Residency, Galveston, TX
2022 You don’t remember me, but I remember you, Studio Nine Dee, Chelsea, NYC
2022 Hey Young World (curated by Mark Francis), Sanman Studios, Houston, TX
2022 Texas Emerging: Volume 3 (co-curated by Jonathan Paul Jackson and Sarah Foltz), Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX
2022 The Process of Healing (curated by Jonathan Paul Jackson), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
2022 Whole in Pieces (curated by Benji Stiles), Monterroso Gallery, Houston, TX
2022 For Ellen (curated by Matt Messinger), Hardy & Nance Studios, Houston, TX
2022 44th Thesis Exhibition, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
2022 This Mortal Coil (curated by Christina Rees), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
2021 Unconquerable Texas Women (curated by Katarina Janeckova), Martha’s Contemporary, Austin, TX
2021 Alexa, Take me Home, Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, TX
2021 Emergence (curated by Erin Carty and Sarah Beth Wilson), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
2021 Loop; New Non-Objective Painting (curated by Daniela Koontz and Melinda Laszczynski), Box 13, Houston, TX
2021 Rise and Fall / Rise and Fall, Hardy and Nance Studios, Houston, TX
2020 JJ Baker Presents Portraits and Artists, Hardy and Nance Studios, Houston, TX
2020 Preserved, Third Space Gallery, Houston, TX
2018 BLOCK XVI, MFAH Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX
2017 BLOCK, Williams Tower Gallery (curated by Sally Sprout), Houston, TX
2017 BLOCK XVI, Interspace Gallery, MFAH Glassell School of Art, Houston, TX
Curatorial Work
2025 a way to mend, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
2024 leftovers, landSPACE: a kunsthalle, Austin, TX
2024 It’s OK to Feel This, LAR Gallery, Houston, TX
2024 orbit, Elgin Street Studios Gallery 1
2022 Bearing Witness: A Fundraiser for Ukraine, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX
Education
2022 University of Houston (Houston, TX) - MFA in Painting
2014 Bates College (Lewiston, ME) - BA in Visual Arts