Miquel Barceló, Life of Octopus. Painting, paper, ceramics

Miquel Barceló (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957) started painting at a very early age thanks to his mother, Francisca Artigues, who loved to paint, and with whom Miquel shared this passion. He attended the Escola d’Arts i Oficis in Palma in 1972 and do his first solo show in 1974 at Galería Picarol (Majorca).

He began his studies of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1975, but he quit to start his own pictorical career independently. He first received international recognition when he participated in the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1981 and in Documenta VII in Kassel in 1982, at the age of 25. Since then, his works lead him to become a model for contemporary artists who links his practice to the strong tradition of Western painting since the Baroque movement.

Living between Paris and Majorca, since the mid 80s, he's been travelling to West Africa on trips which have nourished his myths and figures. Since the beginning of the 80s, his works have been included in the most prestigious exhibitions, making him one of the most outstanding Spanish artists in the international scene. He has been exhibited solo shows in art relevant institutions like CAPC (Bourdeaux), IVAM (Valencia), Musée du Jeu de Paume , Centre Pompidou, Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Museé du Louvre (Paris), Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Roma), Museu d'Art Contemporani (Barcelona) and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), among many others

In the last decades he has made large scale interventions like the one in Sant Pere’s Chapel in Majorca, which he covered with clay and the dome of Hall XX of the United Nations palace in Geneva. In 1986, he received Spain’s National Fine Arts Award and in 2003, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in Spain. He was the Spanish representative at the Venice Biennial Pavillion in 2009.

Miquel Barceló was included, at an early stage, in an expressionist movement that aimed to recover the practice of painting, to which he added his personal Mediterranean style. His first mature works were focused on the artist intimacy and in the pure act of painting. Later on he has enlarged his subjects to still lifes and images of libraries and museums in which he reflects an interest in the history of painting, as well as in landscapes overcrowded with flowers and animals, both from sea and earth. His work encompasses different media such as painting, sculpture and ceramics.

Also his drawings attire an special attention, arranged as travel diaries in which, in the meantime, he explores the land and the painting tools. One of his latest projects is Vivarium, in which he deeply explores the marine imaginarium that comes to life thanks to the hands of his mother Francisca Artigues and her embroideries.