Samuel Moscou

After high school, Moscou worked in the construction industry, where he learnt to work adeptly with his hands. Thereafter, he studied theatre in London and filmmaking in Los Angeles.

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In 2019, Moscou taught himself to paint, producing compositions that were bright in colour and pseudo-modernist in style: abstract paintings resembled works by pre-War futurists and mystics like Giacomo Balla or Hilma af Klint, while figurative compositions were almost Fauvist in styles that recall Henri Matisse or André Derain. Ultimately, however, Moscou enjoys “Having no indoctrinated conceptions of how things should be done,” preferring to be moved by the “drive to investigate and experiment.”

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Accordingly, recent works by Moscou vary in style. Some are dense, textured pieces, combining totemic, masculine figures with bold blocks of colour and other geometrical details. Others are softer in palette and touch, pairing the smokiness of aerosols with the fluidity of water colour to produce a more meditative effect. What ties them together is what the artist calls “a desire for narrative” integrated with the “practical skills of one who builds and creates.” The latter quality is evidenced by Moscou’s deftness with a range of materials. In his paintings, he uses enamel, aerosol, and shellac as confidently as oil and acrylic, and his talent for wood carving is evident in both sculptures and hand-built frames.