Meet Angelo Arnold | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Angelo Arnold and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Angelo, how do you think about risk?
Risk plays an important role in my process—it’s present throughout the design and within the fabrication process of my sculptures. As a professional artist, I take risks and push boundaries to prevent boredom or fall into the trap of repeating the same style or duplicating an artwork. Risk allows me to experiment, make mistakes, and grow as an artist. This development gives me the courage to overcome adversity and provides me with the confidence needed to take the criticism (and the praise). Every risk is not always successful, yet the path that follows will be the reward. I feel that my most successful artworks have been the result of a risk I’ve taken with an idea, technique, material, or process.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Most of my work is anthropomorphic furniture. Essentially, furniture-like objects that resemble human gestures or dynamic poses. The meaning behind the work tells the stories of my past, my family, and sometimes current issues. The pieces often bring with them a sense of humor to disguise a more personal or emotional undercurrent. My favorite word to describe my work is Familiarture—it’s familiar to the viewer’s eye and memory, yet not functional like furniture. It evokes memories, and hopefully good ones.
It is never easy to be an artist. Most people do not understand or value the industry until they try to do what artists do. There are always obstacles or hurdles in the art world (marketing, networking, presenting, and selling the work), however the process is similar to many other professions—research, experimentation, failure, practice, and iteration.
Hopefully the viewer will see a unique quality in the work or that it’s well constructed; that the pieces are fun, quirky, and make you ask questions. More importantly, I want the viewer to see their own stories in the sculptures and make a personal connection.
Sometimes the artwork gets confused with more traditional craft. Once I was at an opening for a group show in a museum, and an elderly viewer made a beeline for one of my favorite non-functional chairs, Not Today. They were visibly annoyed when they couldn’t find a way sit down as the arms were firmly crossed and clearly denying access. I felt bad, but it was funny as the piece did its job.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
There are so many wonderful things to do in the Triangle: Koka Booth or the Coastal Credit Union for live music, Downtown Cary Park and Bond Park for downtime. I’ll wander around the American Tobacco Campus in Durham then head to a baseball game at the Bulls, And the Outer Banks for some beach and ocean time. Gym Taco, Raleigh, Lime and Lemon Indian Grill, Durham, and El Amigo in Cary all deserve a little shoutout.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I believe that graduate school followed by a full fellowship to a prestigious residency program, had everything to do with my success as a professional artist. So I want to give a shoutout to both The Ohio State University Art Department and the Vermont Studio Center. Although, the creative DNA has always existed, it was a lot of hard work fighting against a lack of confidence and belief in myself and my art career. These two places and the artists I met along the way, helped me believe that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to.

Website: https://www.angeloarnold.com

Instagram: @angeloarnoldart