José Durán (b. 1979, Moca, Dominican Republic; lives and works in New York) creates fantastical worlds of cosmopolitan opulence, centering Black feminine figures within baroque interiors as an act of reclamation and retribution.
Raised in the north of the Dominican Republic, Durán migrated to the United States in 1995 at the age of sixteen, settling in the Bronx. His mother worked as a hairstylist out of their apartment, transforming the space daily into a gathering place for dozens of women — filling it with faux satin, opulent curtains, and an atmosphere of feminine beauty and aspiration. When they traveled back to the Dominican Republic, their home would fill again with guests from all parts of town. That childhood immersion in cosmopolitanism, ritual, and the aesthetics of care became the emotional and conceptual foundation of his practice.
Working across painting, sculpture, furniture-making, and fashion, Durán builds his canvases through marbled textures and mottled strokes that mirror the excess and lavishness of his compositions. Drawing from baroque and rococo interiors and from the interior design and decor of the 1980s and 90s New York Black Latino community, he constructs scenes of architectural femininity and worldbuilding that compel the eye to travel and anchor themselves in whimsy and play.
His practice is rooted in extensive research into Black practices of survival, celebration, vengeance, and aspirational desire. Durán places Black feminine figures at the center of his imagined interiors as a retrospective act — restoring to them the opulence that colonial labor funded and from which they were excluded. An earlier body of work extended this inquiry into material history, tracing cotton and textile routes through the transatlantic slave trade and producing sculptures from discarded fabrics to rethink ideas of shelter, labor, and inheritance.
After attending the Black Rock residency in Dakar, Senegal in 2019 — founded by his close collaborator Kehinde Wiley — Durán began painting as a central part of his practice. Solo exhibitions include Aleluya at Hannah Traore Gallery, New York (2025); Elena at James Fuentes Gallery, New York (2024); and solo presentations at Centro Cultural de España, Santo Domingo and Good Children Gallery, New Orleans (both 2023). His work has been presented in group exhibitions at Phillips, Los Angeles, and the Latin American Art Triennial.