For those London based folk, look out for Antony Micallef's new show at The Outsiders which opens tomorrow (8th March). The show is called 'A Little Piece of Me' and will comprise of ten new examples of the London-based artist’s ongoing Head series. For those who don't know, Micallef won second place in the BP Portrait Award competition back in 2000.
Micallef writes:
“When someone buys one of my head paintings, it’s the biggest compliment of all. They don’t contain any of the distractions that my larger paintings contain. If somebody buys one, it’s not about the colour of the picture matching their designer apartment, and they’re not buying it according to the message, trend or latest fashion either. They’re buying it purely for the painting, for the marks I’ve made on the canvas. These Heads are simply about looking. It’s me, alone, with just a mirror. But the intention isn’t to make a self-portrait. Instead, it’s to capture an emotion. I look at my own head as simply a method to help find these faces from within the paper, to purge them out. I feel it’s important to paint from life while I’m creating these Heads, as it’s the only way to capture a visceral, fleeting glimpse that can be impossible to obtain from a photograph. To me, the Head studies are like pummelling a steak before you cook it. Kneading and abstracting the flesh. The end result is never known before I begin. The mark making creates the expression of the face, changing it with each stroke. I’m constantly picking up the canvas, turning it around, trying to control the drips and then throwing it down. This is a very different process from doing some of the other larger, more considered pieces that I create.”
Friday 9th of March 2012 to Saturday 28th of April 2012
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