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Forging Identity: The Art of Dig Ferreira
Unafraid of the unknown and guided by the process itself, Brazilian-born, Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Dig Ferreira has created artworks using unconventional tools that carry an urgency and vulnerability that’s hard to ignore. In 2022, I met Ferreira and was introduced to their works at an Artwalk in New York. The work reminded me of my time in Brazil, layered and shaped by a diasporic history. Like someone translating a language I didn’t know I missed. Their paintings are instinctive, filled with experimental textures that push against the boundaries of traditional form. Through intuitive gestures and an unfiltered process, they build complex surfaces that speak to memory, resistance, and reinvention. Dig’s art form lives at the intersection of abstraction and a visual language that feels both ancient and ahead of its time, Afrofuturism, including shapes and textures of everyday life in some of their pieces.
Born in Planaltina, one of the oldest regions in Brazil’s Federal District, with roots that reach back before the founding of Brasília. Ferreira began to experiment, using different parts of their body and, ultimately, choosing the mouth as a tool for expression for DocDrawings, which serves as a poignant method to immortalize significant moments through a language that intertwines observation, feelings, and emotions. This method emerged during a period of loss of identity, following years of creative stagnation and the grief of losing his mother. In an effort to reconnect with himself, Ferreira committed to a daily drawing practice.
On February 20th, Dig Ferreira debuted their first solo exhibition, Forging Identity: The Art of Dig Ferreira, at Saphira & Ventura Gallery in New York City. The show featured works from 2021 to the present and was accompanied by a documentary directed by Oussmane Fall and produced by Noir Media. The documentary explores Dig Ferreira’s upbringing, artistic process, the meditative influence of the shakuhachi, and journey from Brazil to New York.
I had the pleasure of designing the exhibition poster and accompanying graphics. Within this design I wanted to capture the stillness and resist spectacle. I wanted to create something that conveys confidence in the work’s substance and gives room for subtle power. The image centers on a b/w portrait shot by Robert Nakabayashi that features a close-up profile of Ferreira with a brush resting gently in their mouth, capturing a moment of focus and artistic intent. The exhibition title is set in a geometric typeface, with the unique form of the “Y” echoing themes of self-construction and transformation.
Forging Identity reflects Ferreira’s commitment to a visual language grounded in both memory and transformation. Their work reminds us that art is not always about clarity or resolution, but about the act of becoming. Through daily ritual, vulnerability, and intuitive creation, Ferreira reclaims authorship over his own narrative. It was an honor to contribute to this moment in his journey, to help reflect the themes of resistance and self-expression that define his practice. As Ferreira continues to build a body of work that bends time, space, and material, Forging Identity marks a powerful beginning.