Biography
Araújo’s love for art started at the early age of six when she discovered the incredible joy of drawing and painting. There was not a day she could go to sleep without drawing some kind of story exclusively with pens on newsprint paper.
Her parents, avid supporters, decided to enroll her in Juvenilia; a local art academy in Cali – Colombia, where she immersed herself into many children’s workshops, learning and experimenting with many mediums and techniques.
At age 15 she began taking classes with the renowned figure drawing painter Juan Fernando Polo in Cali Colombia. El Taller del Artista, held by this Master, gave her the basics of the genre, making the female figure her ultimate choice and subject of her art. Through the figure, Araújo manages to conceptualize her stories and showcase the female as the protagonist of her work.
In 1991 she moved to the United States and continued her artistic career enrolling in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale where she graduated in 1993 with a degree in Advertising Design. She continued her studies at Lynn University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Arts. Both careers have proven symbolic in her artwork, as the influence of Graphic Design is now visible in the way she treats color, typography, layout, and the multiplicity of the paneling in her work.
In between these studies, she continued producing and exhibiting her creations, not only as part of her continuous studies but also to follow her own artistic practices. Being serious and committed to her art, Araújo enrolled and finished a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Arts program with a concentration in drawing and printmaking in 2015. Printmaking has been a detriment for Araújo as is through this technique, that she gets to express the multitude of ideas that are constantly in her head.
In 2020, after being considered for many printmaking residencies in Europe, she decided to accept the art residency in Belgrade, Serbia, where she resided until 2022. This enriching opportunity gave her the chance to apply and participate at many art fairs in Spain, moving her practice to that country. This year she has projected 4 fairs, one solo exhibition, and 4 collectives; already a capstone year for her practice.
Araújo is a passionate artist that continues to research, experiment, and conceptualized bodies of work that deal with the human condition, based on real stories; either told or experimented. Her work has the power to transmit sentiments with raw honesty and simplicity, in an array of color combinations and layers of symbolism that she presents in many printmaking techniques.
Her constant development, experimentations, consistency, and tenacity, along with her talent, view of color, and direct power of communication, are sure to lead her far into the art world. Doris Araújo is for sure a Contemporary artist that we must continue to watch for many years to come.