Born in a city. Grew up in a suburb. At home in nature, luxury, and industrial decay.
Mickael Broth, also known as The Night Owl (as well as Solomon Rosedale, William R. E. Turn, Rosie Dale, among other nom de plumes), is a formerly-incarcerated Richmond, Virginia-based artist, muralist, sculptor, and writer. Mickael moved to Richmond in 2001 with the intention of painting as much graffiti as possible. His involvement in vandalism was halted abruptly with his arrest in 2004 and subsequent ten-month jail term for his crimes. Since that time, he has gone on to pursue an active (and mostly legal) career in the arts.
He is a past recipient of the prestigious Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship for his studio work and has shown widely around the United States; from museums and galleries to alternative spaces and abandoned buildings. His work is held in numerous private, municipal, and corporate collections around the world. He has painted hundreds of public murals throughout Richmond, the United States and Europe since 2012, in addition to helping curate multiple public art festivals. He has been an active member of the community, working with youth groups, as well as leading volunteer groups in the creation of collaborative public art projects. Mickael serves on the board of directors for the RVA Street Art Festival and has been instrumental in the curatorial direction of the organization since its formation in 2012. In 2013, he released Gated Community: Graffiti and Incarceration, a memoir detailing his experiences with vandalism and jail. Mickael’s second published book, Murals of Richmond, which documents Richmond’s public art explosion, was published in November 2018 by Chop Suey Books and is currently in its third printing. Since his first forays into sculpture in 2018, Mickael has created dozens of welded metal works and begun developing concepts for sculptural homes, public plazas, and an art park. Mickael continues to live and work in Richmond, along with his wife and educational activist Brionna Nomi, their son Maverick Rosedale, and their shelter-dog Lil’ Nilla Bean.
