Miguel Barcelo

Miguel Barcelo is one of my favourite contemporary artists. His paintings are full of life, feeling, vitality and expression. He feeds an energy and passion into the making of his paintings which then becomes so transparent in the viewing of them. The viewing experience standing before his paintings is always a generous one; uplifting, thought-provoking and reflective as it is. His work installed in Church spaces, seems to follow in the gothic tradition of Antonio Gaudi.

I first experienced his paintings first-hand in a retrospective held in the Caixa Forum, Madrid in 2010. The surface is thickly encrusted with paint and speaks of the crude process by which the paint in applied. He seems to cut to the heart, expressing emotion powerfully. Not delicate or fearful in his mark-making, he boldly and forcefully, speaks visually with such conviction. He reminds me that in order to convict my audience, I must first be convicted of what I am doing myself. Painting must speak of truth and belief.