Miquel Barceló

MIQUEL BARCELÓ (Felanitx, Mallorca, 1957).
"Lanzarote 11", 2000.
Aquatint on Arches velin paper. Issue 34/35.
Published: Lanzarote 1999.
Signed and justified in pencil.
Measurements: 43 x 53,5 cm (print); 65 x 75 cm (paper); 74 x 84 cm (frame).
The series "Lanzarote" of Miquel Barceló constitutes one of the most representative sets of his research on matter, landscape and geology as plastic languages. Made during his stay on the Canary Island, this series is located at a key point in his career, in which the artist moves his interest from a more gestural painting to an almost physical exploration of the territory.
Miquel Barceló was initially trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Palma and took his first exhibition steps when he was very young, in a context marked by experimentation and openness to international trends. After briefly attending the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1974, he left academic education to join avant-garde spaces such as the Taller Lunàtic group, where his work began to define itself in dialogue with conceptual practices and strong expressive charge.Since the late seventies, Barceló developed a pictorial language focused on matter, gesture and experimentation with organic materials, influenced by art brut, abstract expressionism and artists such as Dubuffet and Pollock. His international projection was consolidated in the eighties with his participation in the São Paulo Biennial (1981) and the Documenta de Kassel (1982), key moments that placed him in the European contemporary art scene.
Throughout his career he has maintained a nomadic artistic practice between Mallorca, Paris and Africa, incorporating diverse landscapes, experiences and materials in his work. This mobility is reflected in a production that encompasses painting, sculpture, ceramics and graphic work, always marked by an intense exploration of nature, time and the transformation of matter. Since 1986, when he received the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas, his recognition has not stopped growing, with exhibitions in institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, the MoMA or the Museo Reina Sofía.