Antoni Pedraza

Pedraza is a son of the Mediterranean as a basin of wisdom and creativity, and of appreciation for the human being and nature. Pedraza began his artistic career as a result of the award received by the Ateneu de Maó, "Medalles d'honor" (Menorca, 2000). Since then, he has exhibited in each one of the Balearic Islands. His work is influenced by Hans Hartung and his stay in Menorca in the 1930s, exploring lyrical abstraction in his early days.
Gradually, his painting gained strength, approaching the American abstract expressionists, with references to Franz Kline. Along these lines, Pedraza's work brings in cultural references to the megalithic architecture of his native island.
Throughout his career, the strength of his painting continues, reaching a plenitude in which we find, in this exhibition, a Pedraza who, more than ever, gives prominence to gesture and matter, transcending form and investigating the purest expression.

In Menorca, he was awarded the first prize for painting at the XXXIV Salón de Primavera del Ateneu de Maó, in 2000, and was also a finalist in the Sant Antoni Painting Award of Sa Nostra in 1997, 1999, and 2005.
Among the group exhibitions in which Antoni Pedraza has participated are "50 x 50" at the Standarte Gallery (Palma de Mallorca, 2005), "Abstractions" at the Sala S'Alamera (Ibiza, 2010), and "11 artists with Arrabal", in Granollers (Barcelona, 2015).

In 2000, he began his solo exhibition career with "Las Puertas del Laberinto" at the Sala Sa Nostra, in Ciutadella (Menorca), while in 2004, with "La Esencia Impura", he exhibited a personal and abstract interpretation of Ibizan architecture, with white as the protagonist, at the Sala Sa Nostra, in Sant Francesc (Formentera).

With "Cíclopes" he presented, at the Carlos Roldós gallery (Palma de Mallorca, 2007), a series reminiscent of his Menorcan origins. In 2009, he offered "Lithos", an exhibition at the Club Diario de Ibiza, and in 2012, he showed "Recintes de Taula" at the Via2 gallery (Ibiza), as a tribute to the Talayotic megaliths of Menorca.

His first individual exhibition is "El Bell Record" (ABA ART LAB Gallery, 2022) in which the series he presents is a simple, pure, essential, and poetic expression of his "beautiful memories" of the Balearic Islands using Prussia, Sienna and green pigment on linen canvas.