"I am honored to be the first Los Angeles artist selected by KiptonArt for a Thursday, April 29nd, 2010 Event. This event featured five canvases from this year's DROPBACK SERIES; SYMMETRY an installation of 11 pieces; several images from GRANGE HALL (8 images available); and some canvases from the MIRACLE IN RWANDA series. I have also been studying anatomical drawing for the past decade and have an extensive portfolio of figure drawings available."

Edward Vilga is a visual artist whose canvases incorporate his work in other media. Themes of spirituality and sexuality, inspiration and irony, overlap in his work. For example, the Rwanda Series originated as stills from MIRACLE IN RWANDA, a theater piece he co-created and directed that has won great acclaim with over 150 performances over 5 continents. The play's text is painstakingly painted over its images. For each year's Dropback Series, he photographs himself in an "extreme yoga" birthday ritual of "dropping back" one time for each year of his life. Then he transfers the image to canvas, painting the text of his award-winning essay about this practice. This December, his dropback painting/performance piece was the finale of the Duo Multicultural Art Center’s Holiday Happening. He created a canvas in real time against a video slideshow of his work, with projected close-up video on another screen, culminating in the execution of some live dropbacks.His new series SYMMETRY uses stills on his short film about voyeurism hidden behind the frosted glass of found, distressed antique frames.

AWARDS

In 2007, Vilga received a Best Emerging Artist Nomination from GLAAD’s 100 Favorite Artists OutAuction.

His 2008 NYC gallery show at the Lower East Side’s Bridge Gallery sold out.

He received an 8 page profile in THE MODERN ESTATE and one of his large Rwanda series (8 feet by 5 feet) will be featured in an upcoming issue of ELLE DECOR.

Vilga is a Yale graduate.