At first glance, Brooklin Soumahoro’s paintings appear manufactured. “I want it to be so good, so technically flawless,” he says, “because that’s how I work—like a machine.” But this self-description belies the level of warmth and care that he pours into every piece. “I grew up playing sports, and my coaches would always say, ‘You have to leave it all on the field.’ I need that feeling of leaving it all in the studio.”
The 32-year-old artist works in both large- and small-scale formats but isn’t defined by either: “Size is not a parameter for how much power a work holds,” he says. Indeed, a walk through Soumahoro’s Los Angeles studio reveals works of various sizes in progress, including a series of large oil paintings that he has termed “energy fields.” They consist of multi-colored backgrounds overlaid with intricate webs of fine black lines resembling netting or hosiery and glinting with hints of color. He refers to a series of much smaller colored pencil works as “lightning fields”—detailed linear patterns accentuated with bright bolts of color that explode from their surfaces like trompe l’oeils. Last month, two of these massive black lightning fields traveled to Denmark, where they are part of “Black and White,” a group show at Collaborations in Copenhagen.
Soumahoro, who was born in Paris, has lived in London, São Paulo, and New York, and speaks seven languages—a multifaceted perspective that adds layers of complexity to his work and allows him to tap into expansive modes of thinking. “Traveling around the world and taking in all of those experiences—you put them in your jar,” he says. “At some point, you shake all of that up. I’m interested in perception in painting and perception in life.”
The artist is on the brink of an exciting stage of his career, with shows lined up in Venice, Paris, and Brussels this season. This burst of exposure is the product of very intentional growth; Soumahoro is careful when selecting where he shows his work. “I probably say no to more shows than that I say yes to,” he says. “I ask myself, Does this project sit well with me?” He applied the same level of introspection to develop his process, which is an extension of his meticulous personality. “I need to be able to enjoy it,” says the artist. “If I’m doing something that I don’t like, I’m not going to last very long.”
“Black and White" is on view through July 1, 2023 at Collaborations in Copenhagen.
