Duda Moraes

Duda Moraes was born in 1985 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has lived and worked in Bordeaux since 2017. In 2020 she took a studio at L'Annexe B, the association of artists' studios in Bordeaux, in the Grand Parc district. In 2023 she was awarded the first edition of the Prix Robert Coustet, in Bordeaux.

Her painting begins with flowers and with nature. "I don't paint flowers, it's the flowers that make me paint," she writes. She traces the motif back to the landscape of her childhood: a city where nature is everywhere, mountains, forests, roots that lift the ground as they break through it, greens in every shade, seas and waterfalls. To that she adds beliefs, cults and offerings, the passion for football and the glitter stuck to the asphalt — "a mixture of colours, of races, of styles, and of a tropical climate that is almost always sunny."

"The colour of my childhood is still a shifting prism," she says: what drives her are warm, voluminous, forceful references, which need not belong to the country she comes from. What interests her in making the work is the representation of movement, of continuity, and the harmony of colours. The flower becomes a coded language, a way of talking about freedom: the viewer's freedom to feel, and to assemble a world of their own.

The work divides between large and small formats. The 195 × 130 cm and 195 × 150 cm canvases — "Verde Mamão" (2026), "Floresta tropical" (2024), "Corpo Flore" (2025), "Pé de café" (2026), "Bico de papagaio" (2025) — are painted in oil and acrylic. The small formats, nearly all titled in Portuguese, come in series: the "Vasinhos" (2021-2026) fit within 19 × 24 cm or 22 × 16 cm, and "Vista da Garonne" (2026) measures 27.5 × 22 cm. Some canvases take in fabric, such as "Limao fresquinho" (2022) and "Vasinho escondido" (2026).

A second family of works leaves painting for sewing. "Le livre" (2022), "PB" (2023) and "Inverno tropical" (2024) are compositions in reclaimed fabric, assembled with fluorescent polyester thread. "Lys dans la forêt" (2023) links the two practices, in fluorescent acrylic and oil on canvas.

Zone Trois Galerie gave her a solo exhibition in 2023, and showed "Verde Mamão" and "Listras" in Summer Exhibition II, from 28 May to 12 September 2026.

I don't paint flowers, it's the flowers that make me paint. I was born and grew up in a city where nature is everywhere. Mountains, forests, roots that come loose and lift the ground, greens in every shade, seas and waterfalls.

The cosmic force of the beings who protect the environment, a country of beliefs, of cults and of offerings of all kinds. A people who survive chaos and use constant creativity to enjoy themselves. The passion for football, and all the glitter stuck to the asphalt. I come from that mixture of colours, of races, of styles, and of a tropical climate that is almost always sunny.

The colour of my childhood is still a shifting prism. What drives me are warm, voluminous, forceful references. Not necessarily always from where I come from, because that exists everywhere in the world. Nature has an impact on me. The pull of flowers as they proliferate into life, beings entirely open and alive and cosmic. An immersive experience of beauty and of the sublime.

With all of it, the subject of flowers and nature becomes a coded language, the idea of freedom. Through the expression of the gesture, what interests me in making my works is the representation of movement, of continuity, the harmony of colours that pass on to the viewer the freedom to feel and to create a world of their own.