I make paintings that stem from an exploration of what a visual primary source would be. With a primary source, the eye is always editing the experience. I started out by creating a series of blind contour drawings, often using ‘impossible tools’ like nails, hammers, and cloth, etc. Using the drawing rules of proportion and perspective, I started to see images and patterns in the paintings–the result of a first-person interaction with the hand. I made those (contour) drawings for a while, and then I started using an airbrush to increase the speed and fluidity of the work on large-scale canvases. Over time, I found a new infatuation with interacting with the viewer. I stopped talking about the paintings and listened, instead, to what people were saying about the work. People would change their interpretation of what they were seeing the more they looked at the work. I started moving away from blind contour drawing, by using them more as a skeleton, on which I would paint the skin of the painting. I began to believe that the painting itself was less important than what people saw. I began to think, “How can I make a painting that eliminates what I want to force on the viewer?” I wanted to give more power to the viewer, because I’ve always thought that the viewer is more important than the painter.
Artist Biography
Orlando Saverino-Loeb is a Philadelphia born artist who works primarily in paint. His work is a constantly evolving process of exploration that spawned from the desire to find a visual primary source. This exploration led to working in blind contour to find marks without the edits one makes with their eyes while drawing. Taking these marks and reconfiguring them into compositions that create space led to the current explorations in paint. His paintings should be viewed over an extended period of time during which one can see new things in the painting that are specifically one’s own. As a person sees the painting again they will be able to see a new painting, one that is different from before because of experiences and thoughts that they had since the last time seeing the piece. Thus, the viewer experiences pareidolia, a sensation where the brain finds images in a pattern when they are not there. Pareidolia was the title of his senior thesis exhibition at Tyler School of Art in 2016.
His process is dependent on the speed and freedom involved in the making of the pieces. The colors and sense of light that he uses in the paintings are highly influenced by his extended stays throughout Italy. Using primarily acrylic paint and an airbrush he builds out an environment for the mind that one might be able to enjoy and explore for many hours on end.
He has shown his work multiple at the Infusion lounge in Philadelphia, along with select appearances with the Philadelphia Art collective, and the Stella Elkins Tyler Gallery, at an Inliquid sponsored individual show at Vintage Wine Bar in Philadelphia, and the Inliquid Gallery. He has also created murals around Temple University’s Campus.
Education
2016 Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA BFA, Major Painting and drawing, Minor in Italian
Summer 2013, Summer 2016 Universita` di Salento, Lecce, Italy Intensive Italian
2012 - 2013 DAAP, University of Cincinnati, Ohio Industrial Design
Awards & Honors
2018 BecomeBecome Residency, Sardinia
2017 DaVinci Art Alliance, Member Artist Senior Painting Award, Tyler School of Art InLiquid Art + Design, Member Artist
2016 Programma Ponte Scholarship, Rome 2013-2016 Temple University Scholarship Annual Award, Philadelphia, PA
Bibliography
Publications
2018 In the Eye of the Beholder, The Broad Street Review, Forsythe, Pamela J.
2017 Trick of the Eye: Orlando Saverino-Loeb Gives Insight into his Illusory Paintings, InLiquid, Minutella, Kim
Collection
Commissions
2018 Logo/ Album Cover art for Madswayzie
2017 “Painting of Sedona Arizona” for Anna Botel-Shepard
2016 “Rho Class Portrait” for John Joyce, former president of Alpha Kappa Lambda Gamma Lambda. Album Cover Design “seasons” for ELL Mural, Maxis Pizza Subs and Bar, Philadelphia PA
Professional Experience
June 2017- Present Corliss Cavalieri Studio, Philadelphia PA Studio assistant.
Summer 2014 The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA. Intern.
Exhibitions
Solo
2018 Pareidolic Expanses, Da Vinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
2017 Pareidolia, Vintage Wine Bar, InLiquid Philadelphia, PA 2016 Individualized Paredolia, Stella Elkins Tyler Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2016 New works Fall Edition, Infusion Lounge, Philadelphia, PA
2016 New works Spring Edition, Infusion Lounge, Philadelphia, PA 2015 New works Winter Edition, Infusion Lounge, Philadelphia, PA
Group
2018 Recupero Spirituale, BecomeBecome Residency, Sardinia Looking Forward, Davinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA New Now, Inliquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2017 The Inliquid Benefit, Crane Arts, Philadelphia, PA 14th Installment, Philadelphia Art Collective, Philadelphia, PA 2016 6th Installment, Philadelphia Art Collective, Philadelphia, PA