Artist Statement

Artist Bio

Yeltsin Penado (b. 1990) is a Salvadorian-american artist from Los Angeles, California. His practice includes machinima, sound, sensory, time-based video, writing, installation, and digital media. Yeltsin earned his BFA in Painting and Community Art Engagement at Otis College of Art and Design.

Yeltsin mainly uses video game engines and digital environments as artistic tools to create interactive experiences and machinima. His work engages the themes of war, information and pedagogy. His practice investigates the relationship between digital media and historical interpretation: politics, identity, morals, ethics...In addition to digital work, he has produced sculptural and installation-based projects. He is interested in material experimentation and the overlap between physical and virtual forms.

Alongside his studio practice, Yeltsin works as an arts educator and program leader in Los Angeles, where he develops hands-on maker education programs for a variety of institutions. His work focuses on the use of natural materials, creative reuse, and cardboard art and engineering.

Artist Statement
My work centers on digital media and writing as tools for examining how technology shapes our understanding of history and contemporary values. I create environments that are at times virtual, interactive, or physical, using them to explore how people move through and interpret space, memory, and historical context. I am interested in the ways digital systems mediate perception and how environments can function as narrative structures.

Teaching Bio

Yeltsin Penado is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator whose teaching practice blends influences from Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, and Montessori approaches with hands-on STEAM learning. His work crosses boundaries between art, design, technology, and maker education, guiding students through projects in computers, animation, programming, digital media, cardboard engineering, creative reuse, woodworking, and plastics. Centered on curiosity, experimentation, and material exploration, his teaching encourages students to think creatively, build confidently, and connect imagination with real-world problem solving.

Yeltsin has worked in education for 10 years working with youth and adults teaching a variety of classes and workshops.

Additional Links
Saatchi Art Portfolio
Art Station
Buy A Yeltsin Penado Skateboard