Swindon, UK, b. 1975

Antony Micallef (b. 1975, Swindon, UK) is a British contemporary artist working in London. He was notably taught by the austere landscape painter John Virtue, who was taught by the postwar painter Frank Auerbach. Described as a modern expressionist, Micallef roots his work in social commentary and self-examination. Known for his visually charged figure paintings, he uses oil paint in a groundbreaking way; he is able to literally sculpt and form the paint to reconfigure the parameters of what an oil painting can be. Combined with his impasto and layering techniques, the oil paint is pushed to its extreme and blurs our reading of painting and sculpture. Micallef’s recent paintings are created using these unique methods where the oil is changed into a material to realise a new form of physical embodiment.