Unveiled: Group Exhibition

CALVIN CLAUSELL

Since the genesis of his career, Calvin Clausell has specialized in large scale realism Oil paintings. He has sought to bring to life the revealed moments of vulnerability and passion,

Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, he naturally gravitated to the idea of bringing life to paper. He originally began with charcoal and graphite, teaching himself shading techniques by observing human expression and emotion. He began oil painting after reading the book “The Artist’s Way.”

“That book helped reshape my perspective as an artist, branching out and trying different mediums lead me to my true love, oil painting.”—Calvin

Since transitioning to oil in 2016, he’s continued to expand on ideas and techniques while diving deeper within himself and his culture. All of his works are inspired by the Black experience and what it means to be black, to be seen, elevating our light, peeling back the layers within all forms.

To further express and connect to the spirituality of his works, he creates on wood panels and leaves the wood exposed to allow the natural design and flow of the wood to enhance his background and works.

ANDREW GRAY

Andrew Gray is a painter and designer continuing his practices in Baltimore, Maryland. After receiving his BFA in Fine Arts and working two years in the professional field of design, he now maintains a career as a gallery artist with representation by Band of Vices. His paintings promote a sense of prosperity contradicting the common societal narratives of Black people shown in our community. Initially, his ideas take form through many drafts of digital collages and become a visual foundation for the actual paintings to develop. Andrew highlights a diverse range of black characters to exemplify his ethnicity not as a monolith but instead as a community of complex human beings.

PATRICK HENRY JOHNSON

Patrick Henry Johnson is a Los Angeles based artist/muralist who was born in Valdosta, Georgia, to Hattie Ruth Johnson and William Henry Tillman. As a small child, Patrick was always drawing. When he couldn’t find paper, he would take a razor blade and cut the blank pages out of the books at home in order to have drawing paper. Pat, as he was called by his nine brothers and sisters, was perpetually curious, always investigating the how's, the where's, and the when's. His oldest brother, Johnny, became his first art teacher.

With the help of tattered comic books, Johnny got the youngster to sit down and focus on what he was instructed to do. He blossomed under his brother's tutelage and soon he was off and running!

After graduating from high school, Patrick attended The Art Institute of Ft Lauderdale in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. For the first time in his life he didn’t have to sneak to draw in class, he was assigned to draw in class! Patrick flourished in his new environment and quickly ascended to the top of his class.

Patrick left Ft Lauderdale and moved to Los Angeles to further his career as an artist. He quickly jumped into the art scene by becoming an apprentice for an international mural company. His apprenticeship lasted for five years. During that time Patrick learned various techniques and a multitude of disciplines while honing his own unique style. Patrick became a full-time muralist and began painting murals in Italy, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, and Alaska.

TOMMY MITCHELL

Tommy Mitchell was born in 1983 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Relocating to Virginia in the late '80s, Tommy would draw a myriad of things, from magazine covers to basketball cards. Out of high school, he began working numerous retail jobs before coming back to his calling in the arts. Tommy's choice of ballpoint pen comes from friendly competition with a classmate. When the classmate mentioned that her grandmother used a ballpoint pen to minimize her mistakes, Mitchell followed suit. Self-taught, Tommy studied tattoo artists for their attention to detail and execution with ink. Tommy now lives and works in Baltimore.

PATRICK TAGOE-TURKSON

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson is a multi-disciplinary artist, activist, and teacher from Ghana, West Africa. His work is a vibrant, poetic, and rhythmic expression of his preoccupation with the changing forces of nature and culture on the environment of his home country.

Patrick has exhibited in Denmark, Mexico, South Korea, Austria, and the United States and his work is in private collections and museums across the globe.

Patrick holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the College of Art (KNUST), Ghana.