Visual Art – Washington, D.C.
Michael Bell is a renowned American artist, most famous for his larger-than-life sized narrative series paintings and for his infamous portrait clientele, which includes the late John Gotti, John A. Gotti (this portrait just made the cover of the NY Daily News January 18, 2015), Dominic Capone III (Al Capone’s great nephew) and numerous actors from \"the Sopranos\", \"Goodfellas\", \"A Bronx Tale\" and more. Bell’s works are often the mirror to a tragic world, but they deepen our humanity through psychology, ghostly brushwork and personal color palette that draws on memories and silent echoes from the artist’s own dark, turbulent past.
Bell was naturally gifted in art and won 1st Place in his first juried art exhibition at age 5. As an emerging artist he spent a lot of his time in and around New York City, studying art with his maternal grandmother, Violet Vallery, a self-taught artist from Lyndhurst, New Jersey. In the early 70’s Bell’s Uncle was at the center of what still remains the longest standing gangland murder trial in the history of the State of New Jersey. Then, with the still-born death of his sister Amanda and the passing of his Grandfather, a former professional boxer, Bell began to explore life\'s personal and psychological issues through his paintings.