Dora Abodi is a Transylvanian-born creative director and founder of ABODI Transylvania, whose artistic practice extends far beyond conventional boundaries. Describing herself as a renaissance-style creator who moves freely between mediums, Abodi’s work encompasses illustration, painting, ceramics, and fashion design, all unified by her distinctive gothic aesthetic rooted in Eastern European mythology. Her style has been characterized as “conceptual baroque futurism,” a descriptor that captures the temporal fluidity and ornamental darkness pervading her visual universe. The set designs for her recent campaigns emerged organically from her own paintings, which were then translated into physical spaces and illustrations, demonstrating how her illustrative practice serves as the foundational language across all her creative endeavors.
The portrait illustrations showcased for ABODI Transylvania reveal a visual vocabulary populated by recurring mythical archetypes — the four-headed Unisus dragon, Cat Mermaid, Animal Soul, the eternal night Vampyr, Moon and Sun King, and time travelers — each rendered with meticulous attention to symbolic detail and atmospheric depth. Her recent collection “The Chronicles” reimagines Transylvanian legends, particularly Elisabeth Báthory, not as monstrous figures but as emblems of female power, utilizing hand-painted gowns, sculptural elements, and antique textiles. The illustrative techniques employed in these gothic female portraits demonstrate Abodi’s commitment to what she terms “painfully beautiful things” — compositions that balance seduction with transgression, elegance with darkness. Her visual language draws from symbolism, mysticism, and surrealism, with influences ranging from the iconic shadow of Count Orlok in the 1922 Nosferatu to classical expressionist cinema, all filtered through a contemporary lens that refuses to conform to commercial fashion cycles or seasonal trends.
More info: Instagram.
in Bahia.