Ghastly Gallery Featured Exhibition:
About the Featured Artist:
Angel Crespo is a three-dimensional artist who was born in 1996 in Anniston, Alabama and raised in Hope Mills, North Carolina. Growing up he was always fascinated by animals, dinosaurs, as well as creatures and characters from science fiction films and novels. In his late teens, Angel became enthralled by the bones beneath the skin of those creatures and how they could be manipulated to imitate life. This obsession with fictitious creatures, skulls, and bones was cultivated during the late years of his high school career and then further developed when he decided to pursue his bachelor’s degree in Sculpture at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Most of his work during this time focused on learning new techniques and improving his skills in different mediums. Towards the end of his bachelor’s program, Angel delved into more conceptual work as a way to express and expel some negative emotions that had taken root in his life. Through the use of real animal bones and various other materials, Angel brought these dark passengers out of himself to bring forth new creatures to this world for others to experience in their own way.
After completing his degree, he moved to Wiesbaden, Germany with his family to experience new cultures and develop his specific style further. Angel is currently exploring new media and processes; including wax-based clay modeling, silicone mold making, and polyurethane resin casting. The themes of death, loss, and the reanimation of forgotten remnants have remained a constant in his work. As well as developing new techniques, he is attempting to find the middle ground between process-based and conceptual work in order to tell every day narratives in a contemporary way. Angel has adopted the palindromic moniker of 'REDIVIDEЯ” recently, in an attempt to brand himself as a transparent artist whose integrity extends to every facet of his life.
About the Featured Artwork:
This small gathering of relics and creatures is part of my ongoing attempt to use the process of creating as an outlet for my thoughts and emotions to emerge in a positive light. Using real animal skulls and bones as well as some I have fabricated from my own imagination reflects my propensity to use unwanted or otherwise useless materials and bring these discarded relics back into the realm of the living.
Most of my work focuses heavily on the physical textures I’m able to bring to the piece and made even more prominent by my use of the drybrush technique when I apply color to the final sculpt. This is one of the pillars of my work because I’d like the viewer to feel as if the things I create could have already existed somewhere in the world before I brought them forth from the depths of my mind.
Death, loss, and the reanimation of forgotten remnants are the themes that constantly resurface in my work. Perhaps through my continued work we can all uncover new significance for these motifs.
Featured Artist Website: