Hello!

My name is Isaac Armendariz (Los Angeles, 1999), and I am an Ecuadorian-American artist from Santa Fe Springs, California. I am legally blind due to a degenerative condition that has taken much of my sight, and I use visual art to both work through my own experience and to share the world of visual impairment.

My arts practice is multidisciplinary, but I mainly paint due to the form’s ability to express complex ideas in a simple manner. I approach painting through automatism and free-association, constructing fields and symbols using gestural abstraction. I create cathartic images by tapping in to my emotions and inner-workings, and expressing myself mainly through mark-making, color, and materials.

In my personal research, I am most interested in psychology, mythology, and theology. I use the themes of alchemy and hermeticism to bring together my interest in religion with my interest in optics and perception. Through paint and surfaces, I manipulate light and the eye to expand perspectives and challenge pre-conceived notions.

Dear Chicago,

Thank you for the best years of my life.