Miguel Angel Castrillo Fernandez
Miguel Angel is an artist based in Santa Pola, Spain, creating oil paintings focusing on the human figure. Under the stage name Sotoko, the human figure is the prominent focus and theme throughout Castrillo´s art practice providing him a venue to illustrate the most basic and primitive instincts of humans. Furthermore, his paintings capture primal characteristics that still accompany our society even as we evolve. He self-describes his work as controversial and dynamic; an experience or a fleeting thought can be the basis for his creativity, more specifically, his practice finds inspiration from the Renaissance and the revival of Classical forms and styles. He embraces a naturalistic realism, yet illusionist painting techniques used in Renaissance artworks. Additionally, he is fond of Italian painter Sandro Botticelli’s work and portrayal of the nude. However, contemporary artists such as Scottish painter Peter Howson inform his practice as well. Currently, Castrillo´s work displays permanently at the San Joaquín y Santa Ana Museum in Valladolid, Spain. His works have exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in London, Portugal and Spain. As an artist, Castillo´s professional goal is to continue creating series of paintings incorporating new ideas using art as a communication tool and a profitable way of living.
Artist Statement
“Starting from a need, I create compositions that exist not only on the canvases I give life to but also in a dimension that grows silently between those who contemplate my work and I.
When that connection is established between people and my work, in such a dimension things happen and those things free us from the heavy slab of responsibility, the mistakes we make, or the feeling of guilt that for whatever reason we humans bear sooner or later.
All those figures that I first draw and then delicately paint with oils can be found in very different scenes of nowadays life, normally inspired in its form by the Renaissance movement.
Of course in my artwork, I give great prominence and leadership to the human figure because it is towards people that the message of hope that relates my life to art and what I paint with my life, is addressed.”
“Starting from a need, I create compositions that exist not only on the canvases I give life to but also in a dimension that grows silently between those who contemplate my work and I.
When that connection is established between people and my work, in such a dimension things happen and those things free us from the heavy slab of responsibility, the mistakes we make, or the feeling of guilt that for whatever reason we humans bear sooner or later.
All those figures that I first draw and then delicately paint with oils can be found in very different scenes of nowadays life, normally inspired in its form by the Renaissance movement.
Of course in my artwork, I give great prominence and leadership to the human figure because it is towards people that the message of hope that relates my life to art and what I paint with my life, is addressed.”
EXHIBITIONS
Exploring the I and You in a Era of Change.
25th of October – 28th of November 2021, Laura I. Art Gallery CIC. In Partnership with Artsy and Artnet. 56 IceHouse Court. Abbey Road Barking IG11 7BT, London, ( United Kingdom ).
Sex After Me.
E.A.L. Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf , London ( United Kingdom ). Collective Exhibition, October 2019.
Eros Interrogado.
Salón Erótico de Barcelona, Vall d´Hebron, Barcelona, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, October 2019.
Kandariya Mahadev. E.A.L. Copeland Gallery, London, ( United Kingdom ). Collective Exhibition, April 2018.
Eros Today. Port Erotic Saloon, Exponor, Port, ( Portugal ). Solo Exhibition, March 2018.
Eros y Nosotros. Salón Erótico de Barcelona, Vall d´Hebron, Barcelona, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, Octubre 2017.
El Lazo Aéreo. San Joaquín y Santa Ana Museum, Valladolid, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, April 2017.
Miguel Angel Castrillo Fernandez ( Sotoko ).
Exploring the I and You in a Era of Change.
25th of October – 28th of November 2021, Laura I. Art Gallery CIC. In Partnership with Artsy and Artnet. 56 IceHouse Court. Abbey Road Barking IG11 7BT, London, ( United Kingdom ).
Sex After Me.
E.A.L. Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf , London ( United Kingdom ). Collective Exhibition, October 2019.
Eros Interrogado.
Salón Erótico de Barcelona, Vall d´Hebron, Barcelona, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, October 2019.
Kandariya Mahadev. E.A.L. Copeland Gallery, London, ( United Kingdom ). Collective Exhibition, April 2018.
Eros Today. Port Erotic Saloon, Exponor, Port, ( Portugal ). Solo Exhibition, March 2018.
Eros y Nosotros. Salón Erótico de Barcelona, Vall d´Hebron, Barcelona, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, Octubre 2017.
El Lazo Aéreo. San Joaquín y Santa Ana Museum, Valladolid, ( Spain ). Solo Exhibition, April 2017.
Miguel Angel Castrillo Fernandez ( Sotoko ).
[give_form id="7717"]