Down Nepa, 2024

Awosola Michael Angello  

Born in the city of Lagos, Awosola Michael Angello's oil paintings tend to register his state of emotions and thoughts and also explore the emotions of his viewers by employing magical implementation of chiaroscuro, alongside the powerful use of strong beams of vibrant colors and lights in passing across his messages through the dramatic poses and emotions embedded in his realistic figure paintings. 

As a baroque artist, his creativity is crystalized out of his nostalgic experiences, and his messages tend to examine as well the present life scenario of the socio-cultural activities of Africans and evidently the occurrence that plays around him daily in passing across his messages.

In his painting technique, Angello is so much engrossed with the heavy usage of chiaroscuro as he draws on the Baroque Art Movement in his use of colors and light contrasts in a contemporary way. He considers Lorenzo Bernini, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt as he takes for drawing inspiration despite how he tries to remain creative to fit in for his contemporary 21st century age. 

Describing how much influenced he is by these masters, he states that “I'm always so impressed with the way they place their shades and how they tell their stories, using sensational lightings, dramatic movements of forms and depths of emotions their paintings convey above all.

Therefore, I try to create my own light sources and because of my love for vibrant colors, I make use of heavily shaded backgrounds to contrast my highlights and reduce the noise of my paintings, so as to maintain the messages in them." Angello has exhibited his works in Lagos and Abuja and was presented at the 2022 edition of the Iconic Lagos Art Exhibition at the Didi Museum.