Antony Micallef is known is described as a modern Expressionist, and he's 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 latest body of work, Constructing Auras is being shown at Hong Kong Spotlight by Art Basel, opening today.
 

We see a continuation of the artist’s last exhibition, entitled Raw Intent from 2016. Here, he built up a relief-like surface with heavy paint to depict a figurative mass in front of a muted background. Utilizing 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 twists the paint to further distort the depicted figure in the hope of realizing an embodiment that will "breathe" on its own.



“I want my forms to encompass a sense of life. This body of work is all about the materials used and the palpable essence of the material depicting a sense of being. All the things I was interested in and influenced by that I never thought I could incorporate into my art have amalgamated into this body of work like one big mixing pot." Antony Micallef



Evolving on from this, Constructing Auras, which consists of 14 works, highlights the close relationship between the creator and the object and the co-dependence between these two entities. There's a fusion of forms that manifested itself through the artist’s meticulous studies of forms from nature, drawing inferences from a wide range of disciplines from paleontology to couture textile, influenced by forms of nature, the early works of Alexander McQueen, as well as the V&A's Fashioned From Nature exhibition. This also brought about a new technique that saw Micallef apply layers of paint – much of which was recycled from the walls of his studio – as if they were a textile. The result? Compelling sculptural paintings that resonate with us all.

Constructing Auras, will run from 27 – 30 November 2020 at Hong Kong Spotlight by Art Basel. See more at artbasel.com/hkspotlight/overview

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