Antonio Segura, known internationally by the pseudonym Dulk, brings his worlds of stylized animalia and character creatures to Thinkspace Projects with Heritage. Striking an unlikely balance between the playful ease of children’s make-believe and the prescient threat of ecological doomsday, Dulk’s works celebrate the beauty of nature’s biodiversity while simultaneously mourning the imminence of its loss. Much in the same way that fantasy actively invites collusion with nightmare, Dulk’s extravagantly lush imagination, for all of its seductive warmth, is punctuated by premonitory distress, and poignantly aberrant, if not predictive, details.
Dulk’s work seems to evolve as quickly and drastically as the climate crisis itself. Dulk, always in pursuit of capturing the immensity of the moment, has assembled a series of work that represents a new level both in terms of its technical eloquence and its urgency. For all of their surreal elements and his immense gifts for personification, Dulk’s paintings are the immediate byproduct of his travels into remote areas.
Every one of these works in this collection is tied to his memories of a natural wonder and wildlife, some as close as the deserts of the southwest, to the mythical redwood forests of northern California to his travels into the arctic circle of Alaska. He has witnessed first hand both the beauty of these landscapes and the terrible collapse that is creeping over them like a fatal tide. He works hard to capture both elements because above all he is asking us to go out and do the same. By painting something beautiful he asks audiences to gather the strength to look away from art and toward nature, as painful as that may be. Dulk’s works always seem to possess their own magical dream, their own colors and narratives, but at the core every work has one single voice and one message; he is asking us to wake up.
With a specificity of imagery that rivals that of a miniaturist, with hidden vignettes, characters, subplots, and gems peppered throughout his tightly composed images, Dulk’s work is breathtaking. The breadth of his inspirations alone, including everything from contemporary illustration and graphics, graffiti and public muralism, ensures Dulk’s world is as expansive and elated as it is heartbreaking and wounded.
Book Signing & Print Release with DULK:
Saturday, June 3 from 5-6pm @ Thinkspace Projects, before the opening.
