Get to Tottenham Court Road. Admire Edoardo Paolozzi’s mural mosaics (briefly). Exit underground. Turn left or right accordingly towards Oxford Street’s hustle and bustle. Find Rathbone Place. Proceed to No. 11. Now admire the black and pink exterior and façade of Lazarides Gallery before entering and gawking at Antony Micallef’s show for an unlimited amount of time.
This was the ritual I practiced precisely a week ago before heading to my coveted interview with the artist. I had rehearsed the trajectory a day before, and several other times in my head – all my sense of adventure/spontaneity thrown to the winds.
I show up early. Way too early. He’s late – expectedly so – this gives me good time to soak up his paintings all over again. In fact, when he arrives my nose is glued to his florally intricate work titled Deity. Mr Micallef looks like a rockstar artist. Take-out coffee in hand, black, I’m thinking purposely-tousled hair, small yet piercing eyes and a genuinely warm smile. And suddenly all my anxieties dissolve.
The interview was more of an informal chat over coffee and cake, where we mutually discussed contemporary art and artists, his Becoming Animal show at Lazarides – the Rathbone “branch” – upcoming projects and Malta in general.
Roughly two years have gone by since his sell-out show in Los Angeles, titled Impure Idols, and since then his work has evolved, as have some of the themes which he has been developing for some time. Gone are the fashion labels, branding/advertising logos as well as the heavy overtones of eroticism. Instead, the known-the-world-over Underground logo is used as a “rubber-stamp” of approval in which one of his signature messages is included. Typography therefore, still plays an all-important role in his works – save those displaying the heads – which could be a hangover trace of the years he spent working as a graphic designer, which he considered the next best thing in lieu of him succeeding as a full-time artist.
His career as graphic designer came to an abrupt halt when he was personally contacted by Steve Lazarides – the man who set up the gallery which has given space to street and fine artists alike – and the acute-eyed gallerist and art dealer who supported his work no matter how dark his chosen themes were. This is “the first gallery I worked with which has real vision,” Mr Micallef admitted.
Out of the 50 plus paintings and drawings on show, there is quite a predominance of heads and subsequent studies. Two have actually been titled self-portraits, even though all of his head studies are modelled and fashioned on his own, through an “action” performance choreographed on part floor, part wall with just a mirror as a prop. “I’m not very articulate... but my paintbrush... is my voice” he said boldly.
Discussing the title and subject of his show, Mr Micallef describes how he fancies himself a bit of a “mad scientist”... playing the role of god or creator experimenting with half animal, half human figures, pushing the boundaries of reality and conjuring modern versions of mythology’s centaurs or satyrs, while attempting to see how much negative emotion his figures can take before they break.
“It’s really about the survival of the fittest,” he elaborates, yet it is also about “self-reflection, kind of losing it for a bit, and coming back again... it’s quite a personal show... but I don’t want to be too obvious about what I’m saying. “It’s like reading some one’s diary.”
In the near future Mr Micallef will be participating in a Lazarides group show being held in Madrid. Furthermore, he is one of a select number of artists contributing to an upcoming exhibition in New York to raise awareness of sex and human trafficking. The exhibition, titled Journey, is supported by the UN, the mayor of New York’s office, actress Emma Thompson and the Roddick Foundation. This touring exhibition, which kicked off in Trafalgar Square in 2007, will be taking place inside several conjoined cargo trailers, revealing the different stages of trafficking through a quasi narrative.
In fact, after finishing the work for this exhibition he felt he had not yet exhausted the theme, and that’s where some of the shadier pieces are coming from, featuring abused women of the night inspired by Soho’s environs and culture. And there was I thinking that there were distinct traces of misogyny surfacing in his art. Thankfully, I was way off.
Although the British artist with Maltese roots has not travelled to Malta in some 12 years, he has distinct memories of the island, such as the random signs with Mr Micallef emblazoned upon them popping up in conspicuous places, making him wonder how very extended his family was. With a trip to the rock well overdue, a possible exhibition in Malta is an enticing option for the young which would serve as homage to his Maltese grandparents, roots and ancestry.
Ms Baldacchino travelled to London courtesy of Air Malta.
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