Strike force
Mallorcan artist Miquel Barceló goes for the burn in Salamanca
Mallorcan artist Miquel Barceló takes Salamanca by storm
Miquel Barceló hasn’t eaten octopus or squid for four years. ‘I would rather eat cat,’ he declares. The Spanish artist has developed an affinity with the marine animals, meeting them in the Balearic Sea on his frequent dives (‘I feed them a little,’ he says with a twinkle) and bringing them into his artistic output. Here’s one in an exuberant drawing, escaping from the inside of a towering ceramic pot with sides that appear to have been turned into soft, folding textile by the flailing of the cephalopod’s tentacles. Here’s another, swimming across a deep blue painting. Barceló even says he has injected himself with squid ink for a project, yet to reach fruition, that investigates how these creatures communicate through their skin.
Barceló grew up in Mallorca and the flora and fauna of island life suffuse his work, 80 pieces of which are currently on show in Salamanca. The city in western Spain – a dazzling jigsaw of perfect Spanish Renaissance buildings in honey-coloured sandstone, replete with exuberant decorative flourishes – is celebrating the 800th anniversary of its famous university and asked Barceló to help it do so. Though perhaps not a household name in the UK or even the US, the artist is a much admired and acquired star in continental Europe.