Diane Shah Sulaiman Cousin-Guiette

Diane is a Taiwan-born French-Malay artist specialising in oil painting who is deeply fascinated by marine ecosystems and conservation.

The great-great-granddaughter of Belgian modernist painter René Guiette, she similarly seeks to create a body of work that unites emotion, structure and contemplation, built on self-realisation and self-reflection.

Growing up across multiple countries and cultures, and never really having had the opportunity to settle, Diane echoes that upbringing by relying on a wide variety of techniques in order to illustrate the intensity of that disconnect. Using various forms of marine life as metaphors for her lived experiences, she seeks to connect with audiences in a way that feels personal and intimate, all while certain parts of the work remain private to her.

Striving to put out visually striking pieces that are both picturesque while retaining a strong undercurrent of catharsis, Diane seeks to let others in troubled waters find a sense of tranquility when experiencing her works. Although inspired by the soft beauty of Impressionism, she subverts that softness with themes of abandonment and otherness, subverting such negative emotions further with the venerating adoration of religious Renaissance art.

She uses the characteristic qualities of certain examples of marine life as well as the general public perception of the aforementioned creatures as a method for selecting and curating the subjects of her paintings, where these ecosystems often act as reflections of human behaviour and psychology.