3rd Prize Catherine K. Gyllerstrom Imaginative Realism Award Winner 2026

Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 2026

Dorian Vallejo

Title:

“Labyrinth Of The Soul” 

Medium & Dimensions:

Oil on wooden panel, 34 x 48″

About the Artist

Dorian Vallejo engages ideas that converge philosophically and aesthetically. He is fascinated by the process of individuation and its potential for archetypal expression. To that end, his paintings and drawings often suggest a symbolic narrative. This narrative is meant to represent our mediation between the limits of perceived reality and the quest for authenticity. He is also interested in beauty as a metaphor and the transient poetry of life. Born into an artistic family, Dorian Vallejo’s career began when he started illustrating book covers as a student at the School of Visual Arts, in New York. As the field increasingly began to incorporate the use of computer-generated images, Vallejo felt the need to pursue other avenues with his art. His love of traditional media and the figure, drew him to fine art and portraiture.

“Labyrinth Of The Soul”: The labyrinth of the mind is a complication, a mystery of our own creation. It is the mythological dream that arises from the depths of the collective unconscious in response to the breath of life that is the whisper of thousands of voices on the wind; the whisper of millennia, the breath of life; our call to adventure and centering belief.