Cristina de Miguel — Born 1987, Seville, Spain. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Represented by Fredericks & Freiser, New York.

 

Cristina de Miguel makes powerfully expressive figurative paintings built upon a network of art historical affinities, mythological allusions, and energy-filled brushwork. In her work, formal necessity and intuition overshadow the typical hierarchies of defining a figure. Her approach to painting is emotional, thinking in formal terms but balancing it out with a let-go attitude. de Miguel insists on the materiality of the painting by fragmenting the figure so that it is no longer the central point of the painting, but the act of painting itself. 

 

At the heart of this work is de Miguel’s ability to reconcile opposite concepts. Her figures are by turns, dignified and debased. The color palette is vibrant yet there is a discordance that is dark and strangely perverse. Narrative plays a role as well, though de Miguel is wary of anecdote and explanation. 

 

de Miguel received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Seville, Spain, in 2010; and an MA in Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute, New York, in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Paintings of Through and Fell’, Allouche Benias Gallery, (Athens, 2021); ‘Life in its Poetic Form’, Fredericks & Freiser Gallery, (New York, 2020). Group exhibitions include Van de Weghe Gallery, East Hampton, New York (2021); Sim Smith Gallery, London (2020); Fredericks & Freiser, New York (2020); Herrero de Tejada, Madrid (2019).