Portrait, 2025
Biography
Oscar Eduardo
de Paz
Oscar Eduardo de Paz is a painter born in Chicago, IL with indigenous roots from Guatemala and ancestry in Appalachia. His work centers on identity, structural power, memory, family, labor, and American life, rendered primarily in casein on canvas, with collaged drawings, found objects, and blackout poetry as integral material elements.
The practice is organized through the PSR framework, Poetic, Symbolic, and Realist, creating layered works that move between the intimate and the structural, examining how personal history and collective experience are shaped by systems of power. Writing and independent publishing function as extensions of the visual work, not parallel disciplines.
De Paz holds a Master's in Public Administration and a BA in Philosophy from West Chester University, and completed Post Master's Research in Environmental Justice at the University of Delaware. He is represented in private collections and held in the collections of Nemours and the Delaware Art Museum. He is based in Wilmington, DE, working out of his studio in the Delaware Contemporary.
Statement
My work begins with the question of who gets to be seen, and under what conditions.
I paint the spaces where identity is negotiated, kitchen tables, living rooms, the thresholds between public and private life. These are not neutral spaces. They carry the weight of labor, the residue of language, the architecture of belonging and exclusion.
Through the PSR framework, Poetic, Symbolic, and Realist, I make work that operates on multiple registers simultaneously. The poetic allows for ambiguity and emotional resonance. The symbolic transforms everyday objects and gestures into carriers of larger meaning. The realist insists on specificity: real places, real labor, real bodies.
Writing is inseparable from the visual work. Language does not illustrate the paintings — it extends them. Together, image and text create a space where the viewer is invited not just to look, but to recognize.
Education
2016–2021
Post Master’s Research in Environmental Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
2014–2015
Master’s in Public Administration, West Chester University, West Chester, PA
2010–2013
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, West Chester University, West Chester, PA
Residencies
2025
Artist-in-Residence Cohort (ARC), The Delaware Contemporary, Wilmington, DE
Selected Exhibitions
2026
An American Son, Chris White Gallery, Wilmington, DE (Solo)
2025
Setting the Table, Huxley and Hiro, Wilmington, DE (Solo)
2025
Between Boundaries, John William Gallery, Wilmington, DE (Solo)
2025
Hip Hop's Impact on Race and Culture, Delaware Art Museum
2025
ARC 25 Residency Exhibition, The Delaware Contemporary
2025
Painters Print (Commission), Delaware Art Museum
2024
Art and Social Activism, The Delaware Art Museum
2023
Extranjera/o, Chris White Gallery, Wilmington, DE
Available for exhibitions, residencies, institutional commissions, panel participation, and select artist talks. For all inquiries write to depazarts@gmail.com.