VELIA DE IULIIS: PERSPECTION

With a steadfast commitment to observing and documenting the natural world, Velia De Iuliis’ rich and highly detailed paintings embrace the dynamic manifestations of myriad living species. Ranging from large scale diptychs to intimate tondos, De Iuliis’ work captures the energy and vibrancy within each interwoven flower. Freely mixing categories of floral subjects—thriving and endangered, uncommon and familiar, tropical and temperate—De Iuliis’ paintings celebrate the sublime existence and fleeting temporality of each plant. Building still life montages on abstract backdrops, De Iuliis delicately entwines and poses each petal, leaf, and stem, as she meditates on the complex relationships between humans and their ecosystems.

The works included in Perspection are reflective of De Iuliis’ own research into wildlife conservation and the healing properties of plants. Disenchanted by an overwhelming reliance on the pharmaceutical industry in treating and managing ailments as well as the environmental impacts of such global behemoths, De Iuliis shifted focus to natural remedies, herbalism, and alternative therapies. Contemplating interior plant properties helped to develop De Iuliis’ fascination with the visual intricacies, patterns, colors, and forms found in individual specimens, carefully replicating them to capture their fleeting beauty. In the spirit of botanical illustration, De Iuliis proffers a world of mysterious, whimsical, and rare plants that few will have the pleasure to see in their natural habitats.

Abstracting her images through unorthodox crops and fractures, De Iuliis draws parallels to these species’ ruptured environments due to deforestation, extraction, development, and pollution. Thin line work connects each species in reference to the invisible threads that weave the destinies of all living beings together. Perspection is a neologism fabricated by the artist that combines perspective, perception, and introspection to highlight the disparity between a late capitalistic view of the environment and a prehuman reality. Inspired by the dramatic illuminations of Caravaggio and naturalistic yet highly symbolic 16th century Dutch still life paintings, each of De Iuliis’ works are composed to enchant. Commingling narrative, pleasure, and environmentalism harmoniously, Perspection illustrates the splendor found in the backyard and beyond.