Calvin Clausell Jr. (b. 1989, Los Angeles) is a self taught painter and actor, raised in Orange County and based in Los Angeles. He began with charcoal and graphite, teaching himself to read light by watching how expression settles on a face, and moved to oil in 2016 after reading Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. He now works in large scale photorealist oil on wood panel, often starting from his own film photographs. Series including African Giant, Man and Bloom take the Black experience as their subject, and he describes each painting as "a love letter to my people". The work is built on vulnerability rather than spectacle, a captured moment left to speak on its own terms.
Solo exhibitions include Man and Bloom at Band of Vices, Los Angeles.
Clausell Jr. has worked with Plan X since 2022, with the solo exhibitions The Color of Love at Plan X Capri in 2022 and Reflections at Plan X Milan in 2024.
