One night in Los Angeles Painting

Deniz Hotamisligil is a Turkish-born, Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the tension between abstraction and narrative, structure and spontaneity. Trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, he developed an experimental and collaborative approach early on through an artist collective called “Casualiving.” His creative journey has spanned continents and disciplines—from fine art to design, photography to painting—each medium a vessel for expressing mood, memory, and meditative reflection. Hotamisligil is best known for his aerial photography series “Spiritual Altitudes,” where he captures urban landscapes from uniquely personal altitudes using custom-built drones. These images offer a contemplative, almost spiritual perspective—transforming familiar cityscapes into abstract compositions that hover between documentation and dream. In contrast, his acrylic paintings reflect an inward gaze: colorful, expressive, and often improvised, they serve as emotional snapshots shaped by music, intuition, and mood. Across both practices, his work emphasizes contrast—between chaos and clarity, beauty and grit, movement and stillness. Central to Hotamisligil’s practice is storytelling through juxtaposition. Drawing from his background in motion picture design and sociology, he weaves visual narratives that challenge perspective and perception. Whether layering graffiti with elegance or capturing the hush of a city from above, his art invites viewers to slow down, shift their gaze, and find resonance in the unexpected. Ultimately, Hotamisligil’s work is about connection—between people, places, and the hidden stories that emerge when we look at the world a little differently.