Guiselt Thaiz works in painting and sculpture, employing techniques that blend spontaneity and control. With her canvas laid directly on the floor, she applies pigment to unprimed fabric, allowing the paint to seep fluidly and impregnate the surface with bright, explosive colors. Her process involves layering gestural calligraphic brushstrokes and chunky impasto, creating contrasting ethereal and weighty textures. Thaiz challenges notions of naivety in her work, embracing a balance between deliberate control and playful experimentation.
Thaiz explains, “My interest in the natural world instilled a sense of wildness in my creative process, leading me to prioritize freedom over control.” Her approach fosters spontaneity and soft romanticism, oscillating between abstraction and representation. This dynamic, unstructured method gives her paintings a nostalgic, dreamy, and transient quality reminiscent of pictorial photography, evoking the aesthetic of Imogen Cunningham. Additionally, Thaiz integrates graphic design and illustration into her work, influenced by her background as a children’s book illustrator and the modernist designs of Ikko Tanaka.
Thaiz’s use of bright colors reflects her memory of growing up by the vibrant Caribbean Sea. Inspired by nature, she weaves together reflections of her Dominican childhood with imagery of the German forest and the graffiti-marked streets of Berlin, where she currently resides. Through her art, she explores the concept of home and the feeling of living “in-between” spaces. As she puts it, “I see myself as an island,” a metaphor for her sense of rootlessness, echoed in the composition of her paintings.
Her work also draws on classical mythology and literary imagery to create expansive visual narratives. Themes of migration, nostalgia, womanhood, and the female body are central to her practice. Thaiz’s background in ballet and performance adds a physical dimension to her creative process; she often incorporates music, tempo, and movement to guide her work, particularly in sculpture, where active, playful, and bodily forms emerge.
In her current project, Mammals Mothers / El que no grita no mama, Thaiz examines womanhood through the lens of motherhood, exploring ideas of creation—as a mother, as an artist, and as a daughter.
Bio
Born in New York City, and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
At the age of four I was introduced to classical ballet, studied rigorously for 20 years.
until switching my focus to Visual Arts and attending Altos de Chavon School of Design where I graduated
with a degree in Visual Communication. From there begins an ongoing period of migration. I moved first to Buenos
Aires, then to New York City, and on to Berlin to attend the University of Arts Berlin (UdK).
My creative focus has always drawn me towards exploring identity- my own, and that of larger collective. In
order to do so, my practice uses multiple media, including performative elements.
Born in New York City and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Guiselt Thaiz began her artistic journey through classical ballet at the age of four, training rigorously for 20 years before shifting her focus to the visual arts. She earned a degree in Visual Communication from the Altos de Chavón School of Design and embarked on a period of migration, living in Buenos Aires, New York City, and finally Berlin, where she graduated the University of the Arts (UdK), Guiselt Thaiz is one of the three winners of the UdK Berlin: The President’s Fine Arts Award 2021.
Her artistic practice is rooted in exploring identity, both personal and collective, through multiple media, often incorporating performative elements.