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LENAVIDDOSTUDIO

@lenissima_castro

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Artist 🌋 🐅 Social Animal 🥷Ninja 🍑 Maximalist 🎢 Experience Disciple

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I don’t play pretend 🔮

Alter egos for @lenissima_castro art installation at @cityofgodsfestival by @lenissima_castro

I am a walking contradiction.

Born to Swedish and Colombian parents and having lived in many countries, I am grateful for my cross-cultural upbringing and the influence it has on my creative practice. Shaped by hybridity, contrast, friction, and collision my paintings create spaces where disparate histories, identities, and belief systems intersect, highlighting obvious tensions and unexpected affinities.

I am north and south. I am rigid and flexible. I am disciplined—lack spontaneity, yet I can be wild—untamed. I am all or nothing. I am empathetic, yet I can be stoically unemotional. I can be a traditionalist, yet I am fervently progressive. I am extremely tolerant of all types of belief systems, yet I have a moral compass and can be judgemental of those misguided by self Interest and narcissism. I can be particular about who I let in, but it is the authentic, and imperfect that resonate with me most. #newyorkartists #ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴᴀʀᴛɪsᴛ #colombianswedishartist #femalesurrealist #contemporaryartist by @lenissima_castro

”MY HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER” 2025 Oil on canvas 40x50” is my adaptation of Italy’s most revered classical novel “IL GATTOPARDO” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 1958. The novel chronicles the experience of an aristocratic Prince and his family during the Sicilian-Italian Risorgiemento in the 1860’s a time of great upheaval and change.

While I always weave my own narrative into my work, I keep a sharp eye on di Lampedusa’s concerns — A recent trip to Sicily, a collector friend of Sicilian descent & present day too many to list current events are among my inspirations. And I really am a lonely hunter on the quest for love and inspiration. by @lenissima_castro

Portraits for Commission

Presently, I have been working on a series of portraits titled “Valley Of The Dolls”, a narrative-driven, surrealist, character exploration. As a compliment to this series, I have been accepting and working on private portrait commissions.

I began my artistic career working directly from the model and this new endeavor is an exciting return, and a wonderful prospect for me to once again collaborate with my subjects. A classicist at heart, I am endlessly inspired by John Singer Sargent, Ingres and Bronzino. At the same time, I am moved by the contemporary portraits of Amoako Boafo, Sasha Gordon and Alice Neal. As a figure painter and lover of the human form, the return feels like a natural consequence of a lifetime of focus and study on the geography of the face and body, its curves and colors — I am fascinated by the subtle qualities that make one face different from another.

Few things in life are more unique or sentimental than a portrait painting. They are exclusive and timeless windows that capture a moment in time living on for centuries as heirlooms and often historical icons for future mankind to ponder and appreciate. DM or email lenaviddo@gmail for inquiries.

“Page of Cups” portrait of Gaia R. 40 x 30” Oil on Canvas 2025 by @lenissima_castro

Hot girls, delicious babies and hungry wolves is recurring iconography found in my work. I Can’t seem to get it enough of them!

FEEDING YOUR DEMONS is a parable on the end of empire. The painting presents She-Wolves, in a suggested apocalyptic landscape tending to their young. In the wake of disaster the wolf-women, as always, take care of nurturing the next generation of despots. I explore themes of subjugation, patriarchy, objectification as well as the beauty & power of the feminine.

As a surrealist, a natural consequence of my development as an artist has been my dive into the realm of world building. I’m Excited about all that’s cooking in my studio!

FEEDING YOUR DEMONS 30 x 40” oil on canvas 2026 #surrealism #worldbuildingart #figurativeartist #brooklynartist #nycartist by @lenissima_castro

Life is a Peach 🍑 Stories and photos by @birdsnakes @rxsweetlips @dannielswatosh @key.chante @luanabusetti
Gracias @yafit_goldish #westhampton #friends #parceros #elparche #peaches #lifeisapeach by @lenissima_castro

Happy to say so long to my darling “Dr. Strangelove” as it is off to a new home. This piece was finally finished last week after working on it for over two years. It took on many manifestations over time. Unresolved, I would put it away for months at a time, and then revisit it with fresh eyes to climb to some higher ground.

While my paintings are cryptic propositions for the viewer to interpret, my own generative process is its own act of deciphering, tasked with solving the compositional riddle of symbols and figures born from my stream of consciousness approach.

Dr. Strangelove is a commentary on western cultural fantasies grounded in war and violence. It exemplifies the bizarre randomness of luck and privilege along with the apathy of the decadent and glamourous. Pointing to similar themes found in Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same title, “Dr. Strangelove,Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love The Bomb.” I explore sexual pathologies linked to war-making, the horrifying potential for humanity’s destruction through catastrophic folly of reckless military bureaucracy and masculine insecurity. The Unicorn, serving as knight in shining armor archetype, comes to our rescue, exemplifying and perpetuating patriarchal structures by promoting traditional, limiting gender roles. #oilpainting #unicorn #lenaviddo #stanleykubrickfilm #nyartist by @lenissima_castro

I am INSATIABLE.

It is why I paint. Painting is the place where I revel in my decadence without shame or inhibition. I paint, because I feel caught between two worlds. I experience consciousness and the ability to choose right from wrong in the daylight hours, and then slip in my work to satisfy urges and instincts as I encounter my shadow animal self in dreams at the darkest hours of night and in the deepest recesses of my psyche. It is through my work that I am able to recreate myself over and over again—I am made and remade. My practice is an endless process of introspection and deriving meanings. Making art, brushes against a kind of immortality. Infinity and limitlessness unfold. The paintings I create are of myself at a certain moment in time. Existential portraits of my mind, captured in an era of informational overload.

DISCLAIMER - all content sprung directly from the mind and hand. No use of AI in my content.

Photo by @chipotle_mayo_

#artiststatement #colombianswedish #insatiable #oilpainter #martialartist #singlemomartist #noAI #brooklynfemaleartist #earthlydelights #portraitartists #predatororprey #californication #popsurealiam #surealism #art #newyorkartist #colombianswedishartist #lenaviddostudio #lenaviddo by @lenissima_castro

My personal fave from the Earthly Delights Series “Mousquerade” 36 x 36” oil on Canvas #mousquerade #catandmouse #whenthecatsaway #themicewillplay by @lenissima_castro

When you dine with them cannibals sooner or later darling you’re gonna get eaten.

My commentary on toxic relationships.

“Dining With Cannibals”
36 x 36” Oil on Canvas
#toxicrelationships #oilpainting #nickcave #cannibalshymn #diningwithcannibals #femalepainter #newyorkartist by @lenissima_castro

World Honey Bee Day ~ God Save the Queen ~ oil on canvas ~ an homage to these wonderous Creatures.
These essential pollinators are struggling and in decline. How can we help protect the bees? Creating more green spaces, planting native flowers, leaving leaf litter in your garden and buying local produce are all easy options. #worldbeeday #godsavethequeen #oilpainter #brooklynartist #colonycollapsedisorder #honeybees #lenissimacastro #lenaviddostudios #colombianswedish #popsurrealism #hifructose #hidructosemag by @lenissima_castro

Light My Fire, one of my favorites from the Earthly Delights series found a good home and is part of art patron, curator and philanthropist, Superwoman, Beth Rudin-DeWoody’s collection. I have fond memories of those times at Cold Castle, the epic artist community I was a part of and where so many wonderful things happened for me creatively as an artist. #lightmyfire #earthlydelights, #contemporarypainter #lenaviddoartist #lenaviddostudios #oilpainter #colombianswedishpainter #contemporaryart #juxtapozmag #highfructosemag #dewoodycollection #coldcastle #artistcommunity by @lenissima_castro