Rising Stars: Meet Eric LoPresti of Los Angeles / OC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric LoPresti.

Hi Eric, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Colorado but my formative experience was a bicycle wreck in the remote desert of eastern Washington State. I was peddling solo in the heat of late summer and — dehydrated — cast myself over a concrete embankment, crashing onto the asphalt. As I came to, I realized I’d made a horrible mistake. I was bleeding internally, my vision was going and I was alone several miles outside of town. This was pre-cell-phone. As I poured the styrofoam out of my crushed helmet, I looked up at the sky and saw a cloudless crystal blue ocean of color.

I thought, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and… I’m going to die here. That is where my aesthetic was formed.

More recently, after twenty years living in Brooklyn, my partner and I moved to Los Angeles. By coincidence we arrived one day before the catastrophic fires of January 2025. I’d been painting fire as a metaphor for disaster since before covid but now I feel the subject is of more immediate significance.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I paint landscapes including deserts and occasionally some very dark subjects. This juxtaposition of the deadly and the sublime is core to my identity as an artist.

My home town of Richland was part of the Manhattan Project. During WWII, Richland engineers created plutonium for the nuclear bombs which the US dropped on Japan. In 2022, I had the privilege of traveling to Tokyo as an artist, and talking with the children of some of the survivors — one of the most beautiful and profound experiences of my career.

Lately I’ve been making what I call Hybrids — artworks which incorporate video within a painted image: loops of circling ravens or drone footage of me swimming at the Pacific Aquatic Center in Los Angeles. Into these scenes of natural phenomenon I like to interject trompe-l’œil tape marks. Whether carefully painted, masked-and-revealed or physically cut into the canvas, these create (for me) sharply juxtaposed feelings: beauty vs. turbulence, fun vs. fear, control vs. chaos.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a contemporary landscape painter who incorporates video into my work.

I live in Los Angeles, after twenty years in Brooklyn, and I focus on creating visions which juxtapose opposites within the same picture.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I’m partially colorblind but I didn’t know it until I was 25 years old. Kindof a surprise for an artist. The doctor says I compensate well 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericlopresti.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elopresti/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elopresti