Leul Asfaw

Leul Asfaw, born in 1991 in Glendora and currently residing in Pomona, has been working in the studio arts program at Tierra del Sol since 2012. Asfaw creates artworks of carefully drawn scenes layered with rich colors. His subjects have included animals and people but he typically concentrates on rendering the landscape. Asfaw finds inspiration in the places he sees while traveling with his family. Cities, such as Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, have impressed him deeply, along with the plains and mountains of California. He finds great beauty in the sky and the endless variation of clouds that move across it. Asfaw works his colored pencils vigorously into the surface of his paper, creating compositions of forms that are densely saturated with color while glowing with subtle luminosity. His overlaying of colors, darkened palette, and the velvety surface of his work share similarities to the later works of Mark Rothko. Asfaw has said that he feels good when he is working on his art and he hopes those who can experience it feel the same.

 
Leul Asfaw’s exhibition resume includes: You Have The Right To Make Work, Curated by Katie Bristol, University of La Verne College of Law, Ontario; The Clouds on Top of the Mountains, Curated by Leul Asfaw, First Street Gallery Art Center, Claremont; Full Circle: 25 Years of First Street Gallery & CGU Art, Curated by David Pagel, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont; Dialogues of Practice Part I, West Los Angeles College Gallery, Culver City; and, Found in Translation, a collaboration with Charles Long, First Street Gallery Art Center, Claremont, all in California.