Izel Villarba (b. Seattle, Washington) is a Brooklyn based artist currently painting with bleach on black canvas. He received his BA from the Gallatin program at New York University, studying a combination of psychology, film, and visual art. His conceptual work addresses the surreal experience of mundane life; the idea for bleach paintings was an offshoot of a poem written about the futility of resisting change, during the COVID pandemic when bleach was both heavily politicized and used. His work has been shown at Pioneer Works and O’Flaherty’s in New York and featured in publications such as i-D Magazine and Pond Magazine.

About Futility and Broadways

Today I spilled bleach on my skin and it corroded into something I did not know.

I tried my best to wipe it off but only came away with the bits of myself left behind.

When I looked in the mirror I could see my ribs jutting out

And remembered the feeling of scavenging through my parent’s cupboard.

On the train, they didn’t notice.

No one realized I wasn’t the same anymore,

Or that I miss home sometimes.

And this metal car feels like a roller-coaster too,

For a while ago might’ve been fun for me,

But I’m a little wiser now and fear

That I couldn’t get out if I tried or wanted to,

That the decision is not up to me or any of us really.

You see, I wasn’t always a skeleton.

I had flesh, and blood, and guts like you.

But I moved to a city of vultures,

And became intoxicated with the smell of bleach.