An illustration by Argentinian artist Santiago Caruso.
Argentina-based artist Santiago Caruso may only be in his early 30s but his nightmarishly surreal paintings appear to be the work of a someone much more sage than his years.
Caruso’s artwork has been shown all over the world and his illustrations have graced the pages of books such as The Folio Society’s gorgeously illustrated version of Charlotte Brontë‘s 1847 novel Jane Eyre, and other publications featuring the works of Shakespeare and a recent republication of Don Quixote. Caruso’s work also appears on the covers of many albums such as by Italian black metal band Selvans and long-running Australian avant-garde death metal band StarGazer. In an interview from 2014 Caruso says that his creative process has always been intertwined with music since he started honing his skill as a young child. The talented Argentinian also credits the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft as other influences for his work.
Here’s more from Caruso, who calls himself a “Symbolist,” on his unique style:
I try to summon a poetic phantom that supplies a wider vision of the human, contemplating the beautiful, the frightening, the repressed or forgotten in the shadows, the impossible. With this concept of depiction, I try to utilize Gothic symbolism as a crystallized view of the world in many respects. I combine religion, politics, and commonplace things to reveal another vision of the world with regard to the unconscious, the damned ghosts we’ve buried, and many other aspects of history and philosophy.
I think you will find that the work I’ve featured in this post by Caruso are as compelling as his statement above. Most of the images that follow are fantastically NSFW.
The cover of the 2016 collaboration from Italian black metal band Selvans and Argentinian band Downfall of Nur by Santiago Caruso.
The cover of the 2014 album by Australian avant-garde death metal band Stargazer ‘A Merging to the Boundless’ by Santiago Caruso.
The cover of the 2013 album from Chile-based band Pentagram ‘The Malefice’ by Santiago Caruso.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Macabre, gothic illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Tales of Mystery and Imagination’
Tiny nightmarish illustrations drawn on sticky notes
Salvador Dali goes to Hell: Astounding illustrations for Dante’s ‘Inferno’