Velia De Iuliis paints harmonious arrangements of finely-rendered plants and wildlife, focusing primarily on endangered or threatened species. Flowers, plants, and animals appear to float or dance across sharply contrasted dark backgrounds, gently touching petal to leaf tip to beak to stem—a poetic statement on the delicate balance of ecosystems found in the natural world. By featuring these vulnerable life forms alongside local and recognizable flora, as well as plants that have historically been used for alternative healing, De Iuliis’ compositions offer various strategies to value the precariousness of life including empathy and stewardship in close dialogue with a rapidly changing planet.

Nodding to both 16^th century Flemish still life painting and the epic history of scientific illustration (from ancient Rome to contemporaries like Walton Ford and Alexis Rockman), De Iuliis orders her subjects with formal balance, symmetry, and precision, creating a sense of unity amidst the chaos of environmental degradation. Each painting is a testament to both De Iuliis’ technical skill and her deep reverence for nature—visual feasts, poignant reminders, odes to beauty, wildlife time capsules, and a clarion call to action.

Velia De Iuliis (b.1990, New York, NY) received her BFA in Illustration from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA in 2013. De Iuliis’ work has been exhibited at Artist Republic Gallery in Laguna Beach, CA; Maeght Gallery in San Francisco, CA; Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea Gallery in Milan, Italy; and OCHI in Los Angeles, CA and Sun Valley, ID. De Iuliis is the recipient of the 2019 Lincoln Residency in Bisbee, AZ. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.