about christian azolan
Hailing from the small Indian Ocean island of Mahé in Seychelles, Christian is a mixed-media visual artist who enjoys working in the following fine art mediums, photography, painting, digital and gilding.
Christian was educated in the UK and calls London home, he holds BA in Fashion Design from Ravensbourne and an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins.
His most celebrated work is inspired by people, environments and nature and his ongoing series titled 'The Birds' released in October 2020 and updated in 2022 plays on the themes of freedom, fantasy and escapism in flight, against the backdrop of the ongoing global pandemic, war, displacement and our place in a new future. Golden Flock his most popular print to date was re-created as a 23ct gold screenprint highlighting that we have to work as one to accomplish anything in life.
His 'Light Fantastica' series is about the power and beauty of illumination and ‘A Loyal Heart’ from his debut print series titled 'Matters of the Heart' is one of his early successful artwork from his very first art series, This print is one of his best selling limited edition prints and is about love, friendship and trust.
He has also added 4 new artworks to the series while being inspired by seaside towns and fishing villages on the Cornish coast. His most popular abstract prints from the series include Padstow, St Ives, Night Lights, and Stars.
His 2021 art series ‘Genesis' is an abstract series that's inspired by love, the light of a new day, and the creation of a new world.
Breaking with tradition these artworks do not have a ‘right way up’, and with no identifiable marks on the prints, the collector is forced to participate and take control of how they want to view the artworks and interact with them in their personal space.
His first original mini series of mixed media collage, 'San Francisco' comprise of 8 gilded collage artworks that have been created using a 19 year old map that he used when he lived in the Californian city back in 2002.
'These artworks are just as much about the city as they are about me and what I discovered about myself while living 5,000 miles away from London at the age of 19'
His first solo art exhibition titled Little Black Girls where he experimented with painting and gilding on photography, was released in July 2022, was about the underrepresentation of black girls, the exhibition broke attendance records at the Fitzrovia Chapel in London.
His new self-reflection photography series Baptism: My Act and Ritual Elements of Water was inspired by Christian's own religious background and the power of water as an element of change, this body of work was shown at his 2023 MA graduation exhibition at Central Saint Martins which he was also nominated for a CSM graduate award.
Christian has been featured in national and local, business news publications like The Times, The Metro, Channel 4, BBC, Daily Mail, Huffington Post, The Independent, Mail Online, The Sun, Evening Standard, Business Daily and Reuters International.
In addition to his website, his gallery edition screen prints, originals and fine art prints are available to view at Gallery at Ice in Windsor, he also participates and presents his artwork at a selection of Art Exhibitions across the UK, like Flux Art Exhibition, Wolverhampton School of Art, Wolverhampton Museum, Holy Art Gallery, Ealing BEAT and more.
Christian is the Chairman of the West London Society of Art wlsoa.org and manages over 22+ art studios, a community workshop space and an art gallery based at Stockley Park in Hayes in partnership with Hypha Studios.
You can view his artistic statements and intentions here.
'I believe that we should always be looking closer at our surroundings to really see them, things are far more complex and complicated than we could ever imagine.'
Christian Azolan
contact christian
email info@christianazolan.co.uk