Bio
The work of Miguel Leal faces two driving forces, beauty and monstrosity. There is a leitmotif present in each work, humanity. The artist's obsession seems to be the expression of the grotesque under the thorough veil of formal beauty. The aesthetic is born on the patch of color, the line is banished to figuration, de-collages or photographic prints that burst into the fictional tranquility of space and eventually prevail.
The canvas is treated as a wall, it seems to locate in any spot or corner of a desolate street, the back of any building or the masterpiece of an alley. As if he was a graffiti artist, Miguel Leal is facing the surface of the canvas, incorporating to his technique a street language that the artist takes to the finest showrooms. This contradiction accentuates both natures and breaks boundaries.
His artwork connects directly with the viewer because what it expresses is familiar and intimate to us, it’s that other side of the human being, of ourselves - that darkness we hide but inevitably inhabits.