Deoffal Maldoror

Deoffal Maldoror (b.1999) (BA, MAFA) is a Yozoist Illustrator and pessimist thinker who specialises in automatic illustration, living and working in Birmingham, England. Maldoror’s dark surrealist portraiture and their work’s overall aim is to represent the natural progression of portraiture and pessimism within postmodern art and academia. The aesthetics and approaches of Maldoror’s work originate from their love of contemporary Japanese manga and analogue media traditions. They are primarily inspired by the philosophical works of Eugene Thacker, Osamu Dazai, and E.M. Cioran, artistically they are inspired by Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezu, Francis Bacon, and H.R Giger. Maldoror is currently studying an Art and Design PhD at Birmingham City University and is looking to write a thesis on horror manga as the progression of pessimistic philosophy’s representation in popular culture. Maldoror is also the leader of the research group Athena, a subgroup within Amass Collective, and seeks to take the intensity out of contemporary art, academia, and discourse/community, by bringing people together to work and socialise without the pressure of external forces.