Constructing Auras No. 1

Antony Micallef was born in Swindon, England in 1975 and graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Plymouth. He was notably taught by the austere landscape painter John Virtue, who was taught by the postwar painter Frank Auerbach.

Described as a modern Expressionist and widely recognized as one of the finest painters in contemporary art today, Micallef roots his work in social commentary and self-examination. Known for his visually charged figure paintings, Micallef’s series of works in his exhibition Raw Intentwere a complete departure from his earlier artworks. In his more recent works, he builds up a relief-like surface with heavy paint to depict a figurative mass in front of a muted background. By using an impasto technique, the material is pushed to its extreme and blurs our reading of painting and sculpture. Through the use of tools such as scrapers and palette knives, Micallef literally twists the paint to further distort the depicted figure in the hope of realizing an embodiment that will “breathe” on its own.

His major solo exhibitions include Raw Intent(2016), Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong; Self(2015), Lazarides Rathbone, London, UK; Impure Idols(2007), Lazarides, Hollywood, California, USA; Antony Micallef(2006), Eyestorm, Milan, Italy; and a show at the National Academy of Fine Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria (2005).

Micallef also has work in collections all over the world and has exhibited in group shows at institutions such as Pearl Lam Galleries, Hong Kong (2020); the Circle Culture, Berlin, Germany (2018); Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham, UK (2017); the Goss-Michael Foundation at Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, Texas, USA (2014); National Museum Warsaw, Poland (2013); ICA London (2012), Tate Britain (2010), the Royal Academy (2008), and the National Portrait Gallery (2000), London. He took second prize in the BP Portrait Award competition in 2000.