JULIA iSABEL

About the Artist

Julia iSABEL is a Ukrainian-American multidisciplinary artist whose work merges large-scale kinetic painting, philosophy, and spiritual inquiry into a singular visual language. Born in Ukraine and educated in the United States, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Art & Design from Sacred Heart University. Her artistic career spans international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, Art Miami, Yale University, and the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.

Her practice is both deeply intellectual and profoundly physical. She combines existential investigation with somatic gesture, drawing from classical philosophy, myth, activism, and personal transformation. As Ms. Connecticut 2022, she expanded her artistic mission into global advocacy—championing women’s empowerment, environmental stewardship, and social justice through art.

iSABEL’s work is housed in numerous public and private collections, and her creative identity is marked by bold experimentation across painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media.

Artistic Practice

At the core of Julia iSABEL’s practice is kinetic painting—large-scale, movement-driven works created with enamel, breath, and physical gesture. She paints with her whole body, allowing motion, rhythm, and sound to shape each composition. Her signature “tamed drip” technique turns raw enamel into fluid calligraphy, capturing the immediacy of emotion as it passes through her.

Although enamel on raw canvas forms the foundation of her visual language, her curiosity extends into oil, watercolor, encaustic, graphite, charcoal, shredded mixed media, photography, and sculpture. Regardless of the medium, she explores how energy, truth, and personal revelation can manifest in form. Her works often emerge from a state of deep attunement, blending silence, music, and intuitive movement into a process that is as meditative as it is physical.

Conceptually, she works at the intersection of philosophy and spiritual psychology. She investigates the illusions and shadows explored in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, confronts themes of patriarchal pressure and societal manipulation, and reclaims the feminine as an ancient source of life and wisdom. Her paintings also arise from ecological concern, wrestling with humanity’s impact on the planet, and from the desire to awaken collective consciousness to its interconnectedness. Music plays a central role in her process; compositions act as catalysts that reorganize her emotional field, allowing her gestures to become records of vibration.

Each painting becomes a portal—a captured trace of consciousness in motion, a visual translation of sound into gesture, and an invitation for viewers to encounter their own shadows, freedoms, and truths. Through movement, color, and rhythm, her practice becomes both a healing ritual and a testimony to inner transformation.

Alignment with the iO Arts Center Mission

Julia iSABEL’s work resonates deeply with iO’s founding principle: art as a temple where the unseen becomes visible and the unheard finds voice.

Her practice reflects iO’s mission through its multisensory nature, philosophical depth, and emphasis on transformation. She creates art that is not merely seen but felt—art that awakens, empowers, and reconnects. Her focus on movement and sound mirrors iO’s commitment to expanding perception. Her themes of human unity, spiritual rebirth, and planetary care align seamlessly with iO’s aspiration to uplift, heal, and reveal beauty in all its forms.

She represents the kind of artist for whom iO exists: visionaries who create experiences that elevate consciousness and expand the human spirit.

Featured Exhibition at iO

The Image of a Sound

OCT 18 - Nov 4, 2025

In this expansive three-floor exhibition, iSABEL presents her landmark series The Image of a Sound, a visual manifestation of music translated into gesture. Each work is paired with earphones and the musical composition that inspired it, inviting visitors into a synesthetic dialogue between sight and sound.

The exhibition unfolds across three conceptual realms: the large-format sound paintings; the Women’s Empowerment Mezzanine highlighting the strength and vulnerability of the feminine; and the Non-Plastic Ocean level, dedicated to environmental reflection and regenerative vision. The show also includes a live movement-based performance that reveals the physical origins of her paintings.

Together, these works form a cathedral of motion—a living archive of energy, music, and human transformation.

Artist Philosophy

“My body becomes a brush. Every movement is a prayer, a healing, a conversation with truth. Through color, gesture, and sound, I reveal the shadows, reclaim the feminine, and awaken the light within every human soul.”