El Matador
The Garden of Eaton
El Pescador
Odenis Vitoreli
Artist Statement
I am a painter and architect. My work is inspired by nature, urban environments, the human figure, and my own dreams and imagination. When I am working on architecture projects, my imagination is sometimes restricted by the laws of gravity, building codes, monetary limitations, building materials, and the clients. When I am painting I am able to bypass all these laws and limitations, and I am able to create work that exists on the border between reality and abstraction.
I try to find areas around Los Angeles that capture my creativity and imagination, and photograph them. When I am taking these photographs, I try to find moments that are unique and interesting about the place. In my opinion, the interesting moments sometimes exist in an ordinary place such as an abandoned cage in the old LA Zoo, or sometimes in a beautiful and serene landscape such as El Matador Beach in Malibu. I use the photographs as a departure point for my compositions; I then transform these spaces by creating my own architecture interventions using painting and drawings.
These paintings allowed me to look at the city from a different perspective, and the architectural interventions are my whimsical response to the real place. The finals product is a composite landscape that blends reality and abstraction. My objective is that the final image will stimulate the imagination of the observer and provoke them to create their own stories.