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"Using his body and landscape as points of departure, his mixed-media photographic works combine illusion and pseudo-biographical narrative to explore the instability of memory and the pull between things familiar and foreign."

Allyson Purpura

Al-An deSouza - Exhibitions - Talwar Gallery

BLOSSOM, 2004 (Detail)
C Print
40″ x 60″




The Farthest Point brings together new and recent works by the internationally recognized photo-conceptual artist Allan deSouza. Born in Nairobi in 1958 and of south Asian descent, deSouza moved to England with his family while still a child. He studied at the Bath Academy of Art and at Goldsmith’s College in London and was a key figure in the black British arts movement in the 1980s.

Best known for creating images of elusive sensuality, much of deSouza’s work explores the conditions and consequences of being “placed” in racial, sexual, and temporal frames. Using his body and landscape as points of departure, his mixed-media photographic works combine illusion and pseudo-biographical narrative to explore the instability of memory and the pull between things familiar and foreign. In doing so, the artist probes our own attachments to the idea of “authentic” places, histories, and identities. Allan deSouza lives and works in San Francisco, where he is assistant professor of New Genres at the San Francisco Art Institute.

- Allyson Purpura

Exhibition Views

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he had a vague sense of an elusive meaning, a light in the distance, a glimmer on the horizon, something he wanted to say if only he had the language for it, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

23 1/2″ x 46 1/2″

he had a vague sense of an elusive meaning, a light in the distance, a glimmer on the horizon, something he wanted to say if only he had the language for it, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

23 1/2″ x 46 1/2″

he gazed into the liquid darkness in which desires drowned, from where the body’s delicious pains emerged, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

19 1/2″ x 39″

he gazed into the liquid darkness in which desires drowned, from where the body’s delicious pains emerged, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

19 1/2″ x 39″

Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″
Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010
Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Chinaberry (jdth), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″
Chinaberry (jdth), 2010
Chinaberry (jdth), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Chinaberry (jdth), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″
Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010
Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″
Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010
Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″
Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010
Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″
Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010
Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

TOMORROW, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

TOMORROW, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

BLOSSOM, 2004
C Print
40″ x 60″
BLOSSOM (Detail)
BLOSSOM, 2004
C Print
40″ x 60″

BLOSSOM, 2004
C Print
40″ x 60″

BEACH, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″
BEACH (Detail)
BEACH, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

BEACH, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

Divine1849, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1849, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1572, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1572, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

he had a vague sense of an elusive meaning, a light in the distance, a glimmer on the horizon, something he wanted to say if only he had the language for it, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

23 1/2″ x 46 1/2″

he had a vague sense of an elusive meaning, a light in the distance, a glimmer on the horizon, something he wanted to say if only he had the language for it, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

23 1/2″ x 46 1/2″

he gazed into the liquid darkness in which desires drowned, from where the body’s delicious pains emerged, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

19 1/2″ x 39″

he gazed into the liquid darkness in which desires drowned, from where the body’s delicious pains emerged, 2001

C Print on Aluminum

19 1/2″ x 39″

Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Oriental Iris (wmnbthg), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Chinaberry (jdth), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Chinaberry (jdth), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Calypso (wmnndchldrn), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Imperial (wmnwthflwr), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Polar Sky (fghtbtwntgrnbffl), 2010

C – Print

55″ x 40″

Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

Mango (mrcnndnstrgglngwthgrll), 2010

C-Print

55″ x 40″

TOMORROW, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

TOMORROW, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

BLOSSOM, 2004
C Print
40″ x 60″

BLOSSOM, 2004
C Print
40″ x 60″

BEACH, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

BEACH, 2004

C Print

40″ x 60″

Divine1849, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1849, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1572, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″

Divine1572, 2007

C Print

15 3/4″ x 23 1/2″