I am primarily a self-taught emerging career painter working in acrylic and oil, creating large-scale figurative works that center black subjects within minimal, often monochromatic spaces. My practice

begins with writing—an attempt to process personal experiences, memories, and moments that linger with me—before translating them into visual form. Raised in Harlem, New York and now based in the

South, my work exists between two distinct cultural rhythms. Harlem’s density, history, and urgency meet a slower, more reflective

Southern pace. Navigating the space between these environments has become central to how I understand presence, memory, and identity.

      My paintings often isolate a single figure against a flat field of color, stripping away context to focus on gesture, posture, and emotional weight. This reduction is intentional. It allows the work to move beyond documentation and toward something more internal—an

exploration of psychological space, where personal experience can resonate more broadly. While my work is rooted in my own lived experiences, it inevitably engages with the nuances of Black life. I’m interested in the quiet, often overlooked moments—the ones that don’t always have language, but carry significance. Through scale, color, and composition, I aim to create a sense of immediacy, inviting the viewer not just to observe, but to sit within the moment.

      These moments that I capture are often very poignant, sometimes satirical in their content, which could be construed as a deep dig for emotional reaction, however they are simply moments that have raised questions, or situations observed and incurred in my own life, with the voice that I found through painting . Ultimately, my work is about creating space for recognition—where personal reflection can open into shared understanding, and where connection becomes a starting point for something deeper. It is my belief that transparency breeds relativity; relativity breeds conversation— and conversation is the spark in the earliest stages of change. 

                                        — Michael Howell

 

(Michael is currently living and working in Atlanta, GA and is being represented by Alan Avery Art Company)