Antony Micallef

Interview

From Graphic Design to a burdgeoning career in Fine Art, Antony Micallef has built himself a very respectable reputation of late and seems to be taking his rise to fame in stride.

- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into art?

A: I got into art when I was really young. I have always been drawing and creating paintings ever since I can remember. As a child, you never really know what you want to do, I just knew it had to be something to do with art. I went through art college and studied Fine Art at university. While there, I met some people who had a real hunger for art and they had a really big influence on me. I fed off their desire to create and it made me realize that it was possible to make a living as an artist.

After university, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to make money from just painting, so I taught myself how to use Photoshop and managed to blag my way into a graphic design job. During the evenings, I would still paint in my rented studio and eventually, people started to buy my paintings. Eventually, I decided to quit my main job, which I wasn’t enjoying anyways and took the gamble to paint full-time.

- Can you briefly describe your style of painting?

A: In the beginning, I was really influenced by people like Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon and the whole London school of figurative painters. I am also really interested in fashion and graphic design, as it’s all about colour and typeface and I always wanted to somehow merge this with my work but didn’t know how. Then I went to Japan and saw how I could use images like kimono designs and motifs and incorporate it into my own work. I began to realize that I could blend forms of expressive art and elements of graphics and fashion to create a mixture of different styles combined.

- There seems to be some reoccurring themes and imagery in your art that could possibly be seen as anti-capitalist or anti-war as well as a strong use of children.

A: Originally, I never set out to become a political artist, but I think that you can’t help but be affected by what goes on around you. We are fed a lot of these themes by the media and you have to react to it in some way. Maybe this is my personal reaction to what I see and hear. Many of my work may contain messages, but I have never wanted to try and preach that if you are into capitalism or consumerism, that this is a really bad thing. I have always said that I am just as guilty as the things and people I paint about; so in a way, it could be seen as my own self-loathing.

- In your show in 2007, you started to do more sculpture-based work, is this a direction you want to push yourself to do more of in the future?

A: In this case, I had a team helping me to create them and so I was doing a lot more delegating and considered it to be more a kind of art-direction. I really enjoyed it as it was my first time to do sculptures. When you change mediums, it keeps you excited and on your toes. It makes for a refreshing change.

- What is your work schedule/work rate at the moment? How long does it take you to prepare for a show?

A: I am constantly working all the time as I have this huge guilt factor if I find myself not working. If I’m not painting, then there will be admin work to do or emailing and making more contacts. If I take weeks out and party too much or take holidays, then I start to panic, so I use this as my kind of alarm system to make sure I get back into work. I usually work on three or four paintings at the same time as they are painted with oils and take a long time to dry. Also, if I have a new idea that needs to be realized, then I will try and start it as it may take up to two weeks to dry and I don’t want to sit around waiting for that when I could be working on something else.

- You were recently on the front cover of a Sotheby’s catalogue. Why do you think there has been this recent surge of interest in the British young contemporary art scene from all over the world?

A: I think that one of the main reasons could be because in the past, collectors focused on the Old Masters, like Picasso, because that’s what they were brought up on. But nowadays, people who can afford to buy art want to buy something that relates to their own lives. In this case, it could be references to Pop culture or other similar themes which people understand a lot more. For example, you can go to a Modern Art gallery and possibly not understand the art that you are looking at, an almost lack of communication, whereas with this current movement of art, it is very easy to relate to it and it’s always colourful and easy to access.

- Can you tell us about the book?

A: I wanted to get my work across to the public and present it in a really nice way. I tried to pick and compile my best bits and hopefully, there’s a narrative between the images in the book. It’s also a great way to promote your own work and something to be proud of as well as give you a way to look back in the future at a certain period of time in your artistic career.

- Are there any future plans?

A: I’m going to be in a group show at the end of the year at the Royal Academy of Art and they are going to fly my sculptures over from Los Angeles. That’s one of the reasons why I am not planning a solo show this year as I just want to experiment and play around with some ideas I have floating around.

Antony Micallef : http://www.antonymicallef.com

Written by Selph