Miguel Macaya

MIGUEL MACAYA (Santander, 1964).
“Bird.”
Oil on panel.
Signed at the top.
Measurements: 60 x 52 cm.

This painting explores one of Miguel Macaya’s most characteristic motifs: animal portraiture. Macaya eliminates any spatial references to direct the viewer’s attention toward the animal’s anatomy and presence. The modeling emerges through very restrained lighting and visible brushstrokes, particularly rich in the transitions between whites, grays, and earth tones. This treatment of chiaroscuro—which critics have linked to his admiration for the Tenebrist tradition, Rembrandt, and Goya—endows the horse with an almost sculptural presence without resorting to a meticulous depiction.

Miguel Macaya began exhibiting in the 1980s and has developed a personal figurative style centered on still lifes and animals. His painting is characterized by a restrained palette and a use of chiaroscuro that links his contemporary language to the Spanish pictorial tradition. He has exhibited regularly in Spanish and European galleries, establishing a career marked by broad continuity. His work is included in collections such as the Museu Can Framis and the Fundació Vila Casas in Barcelona, the Museo de Arte de Almería, and the Panorama Museum in Bad Frankenhausen.