Eilen Itzel do Espírito Santo’s practice explores how individuals across the African diaspora and Latin America seek joy, purpose and destiny within and beyond colonial histories. Working across painting, drawing, installation and sculpture, she brings figuration and abstraction into close relation, creating spaces that move between the physical and spiritual. Through recurring figures, symbols and saturated colour, her works trace community, ancestry and destiny through a visual language that is both intuitive and coded, rooted in communal memory and spiritual knowledge.

Selected by Firelei Báez for Frieze London’s Artist to Artist section, do Espírito Santo unveils a new body of work developed specifically for the fair. Centred on creation, the presentation considers spiritual and artistic acts of making alongside the physical labour of the womb. The works are connected to the Oriṣa Obatala, the Yoruba deity of creation, with whom the artist holds a particular relationship.

The booth extends these ideas spatially. Deep red flooring and soft pink walls evoke the womb, transforming the space into an immersive environment of creation, gestation and becoming. Sculptures made from air dried clay, soil and wood speak to cycles of life and death, birth and decay, positioning creation and transformation as a bridge between these states.

Throughout the presentation, do Espírito Santo draws parallels between the artist and the snail, an animal associated with Obatala: both are natural mark makers, leaving traces of their movement behind. Across vibrant paintings, mark making becomes inscription, ritual, destiny and labour. Charcoal and soft pastel works on Amate paper meditate on shared global histories, Ifá divination, motherhood, protective forces and spiritual transformation.

Together, the works consider spiritual continuity, creation and the persistence of ways of being that endure despite histories of cultural and spiritual erasure.

About the Artist

Eilen Itzel do Espírito Santo (b. 1994, USA) is an Afro Dominican American artist and writer from the South Bronx, New York. She holds a BA from the USC Roski School of Art and Design, Los Angeles, and an MFA from the UCL Slade School of Fine Art, London.

Her multidisciplinary practice explores how individuals across the African diaspora and Latin America seek joy, purpose and destiny, while engaging with community, ancestry, spirituality and colonial histories. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture and installation, do Espírito Santo considers the body as a site of memory, knowledge and spiritual connection.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, and she has participated in numerous artist residencies and received grants and awards in support of her practice. In 2025, do Espírito Santo was selected for the ACME Early Career Programme in London. In 2026, she participated in the Fountainhead Residency.

For a full catalogue of available works, please contact:
Bolanle Tajudeen
enquiries@bolanlecontemporary.com

For press enquiries, please contact:
Saffron Wicks
saffron@bolanlecontemporary.com