Isaac Pelayo 'When Doves Cry' Print Available

Artist: Isaac Pelayo
Title: When Doves Cry
Medium: Hand Embellished Giclee Print
Size: 14 x 20 Inches
Edition: 50
Price: $150

Isaac Pelayo is a contemporary American painter whose distinctive style embodies a "head-on collision between Renaissance art and street culture". Born in Los Angeles in 1996, Pelayo found an escape from a tumultuous childhood in art, initially developing his skills through hyperrealistic pencil portraits and later transitioning to oil painting. His work is deeply influenced by Old Masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt, a fascination developed from visiting museums, which he juxtaposes with inspiration from modern graffiti artists like Shepard Fairey and the raw energy of the urban environment he grew up in. This unique blend, which he calls "Street Baroque," features meticulously rendered classical imagery alongside loose, expressionistic elements like careless paint drips, spray paint, and his signature motif of a third eye and a yellow smiley face.

Pelayo's career gained significant momentum in 2017 after rapper and art collector Westside Gunn discovered his work on Instagram. This connection led to collaborations on album covers for Gunn and other artists on the Griselda Records label, significantly boosting Pelayo's public profile and attracting a wide network of celebrity collectors including Sean "Diddy" Combs and Shepard Fairey. A notable moment in his career came in 2019 when he installed a temporary wall across from the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, featuring an altered Mona Lisa with the text "walls are for art! Not dividing people" as a protest against the U.S.-Mexico border wall. After being laid off from his job in the Ink and Paint department at Disney during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pelayo successfully turned his artistic side hustle into a six-figure income, selling numerous paintings and prints online and becoming a sought-after tattoo artist for influencers. He continues to exhibit his work in galleries and museums and is actively involved in various entrepreneurial endeavors within the art and music worlds.