Daniel Cardoso

Daniel Cardoso is a emerging printmaking artist based in Toronto who graduated in 2020 from OCAD University with a BFA. His artwork focuses on creating visual narratives and iconographies hidden in intricate patterns as a means of disseminating his past. The use of patterning comes from a strong connection to Portuguese tile work (“Azulejos”), and how the traditional narratives present in them fit into his life in a Canadian context. Daniel's goal is to combine the visual patterns of this traditional medium with themes of queerness, trauma, mental health, and identity in contemporary print work.

Daniel's work explores visual language via patterned print work. The reproductive capability of printmaking allows him to create large scale installations that overtake a space to bring viewers into his world. The ability to make an edition allows him to produce small sized prints, interconnecting them into larger works. Using creative problem solving and patterning, the seams of each print blend together to create one unique piece.

Daniel's preferred medium is reductive linocut. It is a relief printmaking method that utilizes one block to print multiple layers, carving away at each subsequent layer as you print. Consequently, this makes the process unforgiving, but that is what brings nuances into the print to create individualized pieces that are then assembled together.