Eolo Paul Bottaro, a Melbourne born artist of Italian heritage who divides his time between Sicily and Australia, has always worked across multiple mediums. In his oeuvre mythology and urban life occupy the same space, as he adapts ancient tales often sourced from art history to create contemporary narratives. Each of his finely rendered oils, sculptures and works on paper have the capacity to send the viewer on an imaginative and intellectual journey to decode their meaning…

By enacting ancient stories in familiar urban surrounds, the artist alludes to the enduring relevance of myth to express human experience… Alongside his interest in myth and place, considerable attention is dedicated to that ephemeral quality that keep the eye and spirit engaged – beauty. Not in a cliché sense of a gorgeous face or body represented in paint, but a beauty that resides in both the fine details rendered, and his overarching compositions that sync with natural geometry (such as the golden mean) to create a pleasing visual harmony.

In his attention to the aesthetics of picture making, the artist’s skilled application and rigorous technique comes to the fore. Bottaro works with pure hand-ground colour pigments that he mixes with gesso, egg tempera and linseed oil, and layers in one glowing glaze of paint after another. The result is a depth and translucency to his colour application which is deeply satisfying to behold. ‍

- Excerpts from an essay by Marguerite Brown, 2021

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‍‍Eolo Paul Bottaro (painter, sculptor, printmaker) has been exhibiting regularly since the late 1990s in Melbourne, Sydney, Palermo, and Syracuse. His works have been included in important curated exhibitions of contemporary art and print making, including those at the Geelong Gallery, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Mildura Arts Centre, Benalla Regional Gallery, Latrobe University, Galleria Regionale Palazzo Bellomo di Siracusa, and the National Arts Club in New York.‍‍

Bottaro was the winner of Geelong Acquisitive Print Award (1997, 2011), City of Darebin Art Award (2008), Hutching Acquisitive Art Prize (2011); National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Art Gallery (2012), and the Nillumbik Art Prize (2012); and his works had been included as finalists in the Archibald Prize, Fleurieu Art Prize, Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Darebin Latrobe Art Prize, Burnie Print Prize, Rick Amor Drawing Prize, Deakin University Sculpture Award, Kilgour Prize, A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship, and numerous others.

‍Subject of numerous art reviews and exhibition essays, Bottaro’s works have been acquired by the State Library of Victoria, Geelong Gallery, Monash University, Geelong Gallery, City of Darebin Art Collection, Essendon Airport, Museo Civico Archeologico di Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, as well as notable corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad.