Bio
Doug Welsh is a painter, writer, curator and co-founder of G5 Collective. He received his MFA from University of Houston and his BA from Bates College. He has exhibited with F, Galveston Artist Residency, Blaffer Art Museum, Foltz Fine Art, Anya Tish Gallery, Box 13, Sanman Studios, Hardy and Nance Studios, Elgin Street Studios, and Studio 9D. Doug is a contributor to Glasstire. In 2022, his work was included in New American Paintings, edition 162.
Artist Statement
With music as my companion, I navigate through the world with my ongoing body of work, Life Raft. I listen to one song on loop until a painting is complete, a ritual I find meditative and energizing. I embrace a philosophy of stability and harmony in my life, my practice, and as a guiding compositional strategy within each painting. I work with house paint, spray paint, torn paper, glitter and other everyday materials, often sourced from family and friends, or from local art institutions. I paint with what is given to me because it is political, sustainable, and it involves people in my process. The color and spacial relationships in my paintings can be lyrical, peaceful, disruptive, tumultuous, or tenuous, depending on my state of mind. I reference trees, bark, leaves, gloves, hands and other organic forms within a sea of abstract imagery discovered through the process of painting. I reveal or shroud these references depending on what each painting requires formally and conceptually. 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, ‘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
Powers, Chris, ‘UH MFA candidates launch G5 Collective to give back to the Houston Arts Community,’ UH Shorthand, https://kgmca.shorthandstories.com/g5/index.html – 5.25.22
Becker, Chris, ‘Curators select artists who don’t have ‘egos’ for new group show,’ Houston City Book, https://www.houstoncitybook.com/foltz-gallery/ – 9.9.22
Number 1, Glasstire Top 5, Texas Emerging: Volume 3, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX https://glasstire.com/2022/09/22/top-five-september-22-2022/ – 9.22.22
Number 1, Glasstire Top 5, Alexa Take me Home, Anya Tish Gallery, Houston, TX https://glasstire.com/2021/08/05/top-five-aug-5-2021/ – 8.5.21
Solo Exhibitions
2021 Life Raft (curated by Zoie Buske), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
Selected Group Exhibitions
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 Art League Houston gala auction exhibition, POST, Houston, TX
2022 Hey Young World (curated by Mark Francis), Sanman Studios, Houston, TX
2022 The Abstract Art Show (juror – Liz Gates), Hardy & Nance 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 Bearing Witness, Blaffer Art Museum, 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 Mind:Full (curated by Megan Olivia Ebel), Houston, TX
2022 This Mortal Coil (curated by Christina Rees), Elgin Street Studios, Houston, TX
2021 The Abstract Art Show (juror – Tommy Taylor), Hardy & Nance 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
Education
2022 University of Houston (Houston, TX) - MFA in Painting
2014 Bates College (Lewiston, ME) - BA in Visual Arts