Diego De La Rosa
Home: Toronto, Ontario
Title: Matando Tigres in Toronto
Media: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 36 x 31 cm
Website: diegodelarosa.com
Instagram: @diegodelarosart
ARTIST STATEMENT
Matando Tigres in Toronto explores the psychological impact of migration and the reconfiguration of identity in displacement. The painting juxtaposes a winter landscape of Toronto with frailejones—plants native to Venezuela—symbolizing the hybrid space where cultural memory and adaptation intersect.
The central figure, carrying a spear and a slain ocelot while wearing a jacket bearing the Venezuelan flag, references the expression “matar tigres” (“killing tigers”), a colloquial term for survival through precarious work. In this way, the work reframes the migrant not as passive, but as resilient—an active agent navigating the tensions between loss and renewal in the search for belonging.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
B. 1991, Caracas, Venezuela. Lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Diego de la Rosa is a Venezuelan artist whose practice explores the cultural impact of his country’s ongoing social crisis through narrative and symbolism. Drawing from found imagery of Venezuelan people and places, he rearranges these elements into painted scenes full of imaginative elements, such as giants, theatrical atmosphere, and fantastical characters.
Through this visual language, De la Rosa explores themes of resilience, power, and social struggle, using painting as both an anthropological lens and a critical tool. His work seeks to universalize the Venezuelan experience, evoking empathy and reflection across cultural and geographic boundaries.