Isabel Couceiro Portuguese-American, b. 2002

Artist Bio:

Isabel Couceiro da Costa Newman (b. 2002) is a Portuguese-American figurative oil painter based in Boston, MA. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Boston University, she began her artistic journey in 2017 at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. Isabel combines the use of traditional and contemporary painting styles to create figurative pieces about intimacy.

In 2023, Isabel won the Overall Winner title at the Visual Art Open UK & International Awards. She also collaborated with Warner Music Group on an album cover for Trippie Redd. Her works have been exhibited in the US and internationally in South Korea and London.

Artist Statement: 

In my figurative narrative paintings, I draw from my background in musical theatre to construct staged, cinematic compositions that portray emotionally heightened scenes. Using oil painting techniques rooted in realism, I push against classical expectations by applying these techniques as a vehicle for contemporary, emotionally charged feminist narratives.

As I grow into the limbo of almost-womanhood in my early 20s, the dizzying shift into being perceived as a sexual being has claimed the spotlight of my work. Through theatrical props, expressive lighting, and dramatized facial expressions, my paintings act as a reclamation of feelings often dismissed as “too much,” emphasizing the validity of vulnerability in the female experience.

Poetry is often the starting point in my process, allowing the emotional landscape to build before I approach the visual one. Staging, symbolism, and tone evolve from this written foundation, as if I’m writing the script of a play.

My upbringing as a Portuguese-American is explored in my experiences with emotional inheritance, intimacy, body image, and self-awareness. I hope my work offers space for others shaped by hybrid identities to explore, pause, and find resonance in moments that are both deeply personal and undeniably political.