Vibrantly colourful yet sometimes deeply troubling, Micallef’s canvases interweave social commentary with self-examination. Antony’s work is built upon the profound belief in the act of markmaking; figures and faces loom through the veil of loose, confident, almost abstract brush-strokes that explore experiences of life in London through sensations of light and dark, mirrored in both his palette and his choice of imagery.
Focussing on the contradiction inherent to mass-consumerism, the artist satirizes the rampant social suspicion of multi-national brands while simultaneously being outwardly seduced by products and marketing. Basing his art on social commentary and self-examination over propaganda and style, Micallef is a traditional fine artist, weaving elements of pop-art into his large canvases.
Micallef says, "My work is like a Disney film that slowly turns into violent pornography, but you don’t really see where the change happens. It’s an ambush to the senses to capture an audience. I want to amalgamate and infuse the figures into a synthetic world. The twisted figures resembling experiments gone wrong from a science lab have somehow walked into our commercials, our glossy magazines; a cocktail of chromatic perversion. The aim is to use colour as a decoy to invite the viewer in, to ambush their senses, to give that inner world a sugar-coated, cracked-sweet veneer, hiding the distortion and decay."
Lazarides Rathbone - 11 Rathbone Place - London - W1T 1HR
9 September – 15 October 2011
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