ANTONIO GALVEZ (1928-2021) was a fascinating and unconventional Spanish artist. He aimed to find a strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny. At the core of his large life work is the willingness to challenge imposed norms and taboos, provoking a range of responses.
ANTONIO GALVEZ walks you along the fine line between madness and the mundane.
The overwhelming impression one gets from his collections is of the huge diversity of surrealist ideas. The works range from dark portrayals of our subconscious to comic and irreverent depictions of the human conventional thinking. Even if his work is often framed as surrealist art, he went far and beyond this movement, creating his own and unique style.
As many surrealist artists, he struggled for complete individual liberty in
his home country Spain, under Franco's dictature. He exiled to Paris, joined many other fellow artists and writers and could witness the revolution May68.
This suffering gave his works a unique and fascinating quality, for example a deep pessimistic sadism can be admired in the "The decomposition of the Myths".
Arwork was not his only activity, as an award-winning photographer, his unique collection "My Friend the BigHeads" , usual portraits of famous people that he met in the art and cultural world, just as Salvador Dalí, is also a disturbing example of the infiniteness of his ideas and creations.
In the other hand his collection Erotism is a symbol of irony and predatory side of the human beings.
A SUBVERSIVE TESTIMONY
“Pocos como Antonio Gálvez han logrado dotar de tanta expresividad a la imagen fotográfica [...] un testimonio muchas veces agrio y punzante que subvierte nuestros preconceptos acerca de una realidad que creíamos conocer”
Andrés Sánchez Robayna
- Poete & writer
17/09/20- 30/10/20
Main exhibition : My friends the Big Heads
06/10/19- 15/03/20
Main exhibition : My friends the Big Heads
28/03/19- 31/05/19
Main exhibition : My friends the Big Heads
27/09/18- 20/10/18 & 01/12/2018-08/01/2019
Main exhibition : My friends the Big Heads
Alcalá de Henares University, Spain, on the occasion of CervantesAward to Juan Goytisolo Spanish writer.
Museo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2014 - Casa del Lector, Madrid, Spa
Madrid- Spain
2013 - Instituto Cervantes
Paris, France
2011 - Gallery Otok
Supetar, Croatia
2010 - Cervantes Award
Universityof Alcala de Henares, Spain, on the occasion of Cervantes Award
to José Emilio Pacheco Mexican poet
2009 - "The Three Antonios" exhibition
ArtCenter, Anton Cetín’s Gallery in Cazma, Croatia.
-Mimara Museum in Zagreb, Croatia.
-Milesi Palace in Split, Croatia.
-Museum of Bjelovar,Croatia.
-Museum of Vinkovci, Croatia.
A GAME OF MIRRORS
" El objetivo traspasa la apariencia, espejo capaz de reflejar la otra cara del espejo. "
Fundation Vila Casas
- Art Gallery
HIS WORK DESERVES PLACE OF HONOR IN THE XX CENTURY
“ Una obra que merece un capítulo de honor en la historia de la fotografía de la segunda mitad del siglo XX.”
Huelva Información
- Newspaper
A UNIQUE & MYSTIC LUIS BUÑUEL
“Gálvez, reates the illusion of Buñuel strangely illuminated and mystic.A [...] virtuous photography game between the reality and his artwork. "
Círculo del Arte
- Art Gallery
A copy remains in the private archives of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA)
Many Antonio Galvez's works have been acquired and/or exhibited by many public and private institutions, some of those artworks have become part of national cultural patrimonies.
All intelectual property rights are registered.
Copyright Antonio Galvez© All rights reserved.
