Eilen Itzel do Espírito Santo, a 32-year-old artist based in Los Angeles, is gaining recognition for her vibrant abstract paintings, prints, and drawings that blend cartoonlike figures with densely layered lines and spirals. Her work often features motifs such as palm trees, faces, hearts, and rainbows, rendered in bright, saturated colors that draw inspiration from her formative environments, including Baní in the Dominican Republic and Los Angeles.
Born in the United States and raised after the death of her mother—an architect—by her maternal grandparents, do Espírito Santo grew up alternating between the Caribbean coastal city of Baní and the South Bronx in New York. Both locations influenced her early exposure to art, which included Caribbean landscape depictions and hand-painted porcelain figurines crafted by her mother and grandmother. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and an MFA from University College London’s Slade School of Fine Art.
Her colorful, large-scale canvases aim to “engulf” viewers, creating immersive experiences that transcend mere aesthetic appeal. Do Espírito Santo views her art as a political statement as well, intending to challenge Western cultural tendencies to render certain communities, particularly within the Black diaspora, invisible.
Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in New Zealand, Germany, and Mexico. Most recently, she was featured in a solo presentation at the Frieze London art fair, hosted by Bolande Contemporary. The show is part of Frieze’s Artist-to-Artist initiative, in which established artists nominate emerging talents; do Espírito Santo was selected by Dominican painter and sculptor Firelei Báez. The collection focuses on the theme of creation, a subject that gained added significance for do Espírito Santo as she produced much of the work while pregnant with her first child.
Highlights of the exhibit include “Mammary” (2026), a piece dominated by fiery tones of brown, red, and yellow, and “Bebecita” (2026), which features a curly-haired infant with an attached umbilical cord, surrounded by pastel pink and earthy textures. Both works reflect intimate aspects of birth and creation from a personal and spiritual perspective.
Do Espírito Santo’s practice is informed by her adherence to Ifá, a Yoruba-derived religion from West Africa. The influence of Obatala, a deity associated with the creation of humanity, shapes her creative process, which she describes as entering a “flow state” beyond strict technique. One painting in the Frieze booth, “Ofun Irosun” (2024), incorporates symbolic references to Isefa, a rite of passage in Ifá tradition. The work features a palm tree, an amorphous red form, and an underlying sketch of a house that was partially painted over but remains faintly visible, inviting viewers to interpret layered meanings.
Through her work, do Espírito Santo seeks to create pieces that encourage a dialogue between artist and audience, allowing multiple interpretations while rooting her art deeply in cultural memory and spirituality.