ARTS

Michaelangelo Discusses His Plight as an Urban Youth

Hip-Hop Artist Celebrates Black History Month

by James Harris

On Wednesday, Feb. 16, Cleveland hip-hop artist Michaelangelo Lovelace visited Oberlin and delivered a lecture as part of Oberlin College's celebration of Black History Month. The lecture included insight into the artist's life, personal inspirations and a discussion of his presented works.

During his lecture, Lovelace spoke openly about his difficult childhood growing up in Cleveland. At age 16, he dropped out of high school with a school record riddled with suspensions. As a teenager, he became involved with gangs, participated in criminal activity and assumed a drug lifestyle.

His drug abuse finally resulted in an overdose. When recollecting his youth, he said, "I had to choose whether I was going to be a thug on the street or making something of myself."

Lovelace's paintings illustrate graphic depictions of police brutality, gang violence and poverty which he witnessed in Cleveland. Lovelace paints these urban scenes with a unique cartoon style, enhanced with bright and vivid colors. The artist lacks formal art training, which is evident in his undeveloped brand of painting.

The cartoon imagery makes violent scenes appear ironic and almost drawn from the hands of a child. In a piece entitled "School Zone," a cartoon figure lies dead amidst crossfire between two gangs in a schoolyard. Lovelace does not refrain from adding a pool of bright-red blood near the victim's head for added effect.

Other works by Lovelace follow similar urban motifs, involving the police clubbing individuals, prostitutes standing by post boxes, black-market vendors selling VCRs and skateboarders riding on sidewalks with their boom boxes. Lovelace explained his works, saying, "The paintings look at what it's really like growing up in a community that is looked upon as a war-zone, a community where anything can happen at any time. The series deals with crime, drugs, street corner drunks, sex-hustlers and many other happenings in the 'hood, and it depicts the very essence of growing up in a community where life is fast, cheap and sometimes short."

Through his art, Lovelace conveys issues of racism, poverty and violence in the ghetto. "I see how people get abused," he said. "I try to express what that's like. I'm not drawing pretty pictures for the wall. I'm trying to educate people about what's really going on, that's not Hollywood." An inscription inside one of Lovelace's paintings illustrates his socially-conscious voice: "Can I dream of things they say I am not to dream? Can I pray for things they say I am not to pray? Can I have the things that others have or is it just for them? Poverty is hell."

Lovelace cited Cleveland artist Reverend Albert Wagner as his primary artistic influence. He also mentioned his fondness for Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh, whose avid use of vibrant colors are represented in Lovelace's work. Although Lovelace appreciates classical artists such as Michaelangelo and Picasso, the true guiding inspirations for him have come sraight from the local Cleveland art community.

Lovelace is thankful for his success in art and offers many words of support for those less fortunate. "Every great thing comes from humble beginnings," he said. "Anybody who came from the ghetto can rise up." He has taught programs with inner-city youths, trying to direct them away from the ghetto lifestyle through art.

In the Cleveland art circles, Lovelace has garnered many words of praise from art critics.

Stevel Litt, art critic for the Plain Dealer said, "His vividly colored paintings... are filled with storefront churches and street corner drunks, children at play and prostitutes at work. They possess the childlike innocence of folk art and the razor sharp knowledge of city life."

Michaelangelo Lovelace will undertake a residency in conjunction with Ohio State University. During his residency, Lovelace will help rehabilitate homeless drug abusers with the powers of art. His artwork has been displayed at SPACES, the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Karamu Hous, and Kent State University.

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Copyright © 2000, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 128, Number 14, February 18, 2000

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