Régis Souto is a Brazilian-born, Toronto-based painter working in oil, gouache, and mixed media. His practice is rooted in memory and migration — in what is carried across distance, and what deserves to be held still long enough to be seen. Trained in classical painting at Cozinha da Pintura in São Paulo, he builds his images through layering, bold colour, and a graphic clarity that isolates his subjects from everything around them.
His video work has screened internationally, including commissions for Sony Europe (2009) and the National Arts Council of Brazil (2020). Recent Toronto exhibitions include Beyond the Contour (The Show Gallery, 2026) and Archive of Unstoppable Bodies (Pride Toronto, CF Toronto Eaton Centre, 2026). He lives and works in Toronto.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I paint to isolate what matters. My work strips away the landscape, the noise, the context — until only the subject remains, luminous and exact. Whether I'm working from a bird, a face, or a memory, I'm after the same thing: a single image held still long enough to feel its full presence.
Migration runs underneath everything I make. As a Brazilian painter living in Toronto, I understand memory as something selective and protective — it keeps what is precious and lets the rest dissolve. My paintings work the same way. They are records of beauty that refused to disappear.