24" x 39"
Oil on Canvas
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Juan Carlos Mompó Madrigal was born in Valencia (Spain) in March 28th 1966.
Very early in his life he showed a natural ability with graphite and colour pencil, a media that was easily accessible to him during his academic years.
Later on he introduced watercolour, a technique he used early in his career to create landscapes inspired by traditional agricultural and nature sites from Valencia. Colour and light was becoming the main focus of his studies.
In 1996 he graduated as an interior designer (Centro Oficial de Estudios Superiores Barreira, Valencia). This opened up a new path where he was able to apply his skills into a more commercial practise. He then gained extensive experience working on building and restoration protects. During this time, he had the opportunity to build his own home in the country side near Valencia, a secluded space away from the city life that allows him today to focus on his painting work.
In 2014 he moved to London. For the next 2 years, the way of life in the English capital changed his rhythm. He became very focused and productive and was able to gather a client base and get a constant flow of private commissions. He began using social media as a way of publicising his work and gain an international audience. Along with private commissions, he was able to put together a series of paintings that constituted his first body of work. The technique used ever since was oil on canvas and the subject of his studies changed dramatically to become almost exclusively portraiture.
In January 2018, one of his portraits sold to a client in North Carolina. ‘El Niño Azul’ (The Blue Child) becomes one of the images for the ‘Marching for our lives’ campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina in March 24th 2018.
Already back in his hometown, he experienced a surge in interest in his work, interviews and galleries opening their doors to his work. His first collective exhibition took place in July 2018 at Maika Sanchez Gallery (Valencia, Spain) where he presented the series ‘Caras Pintadas’ (Painted Faces)
This series of portraits are the current focus of his studies, and are the ones we are presenting to you. The style has evolved into Photorealism, a movement very prominent in the US in the 1960s and 70s that still manages to gather a lot of interest. Whilst the movement focuses very much on images of daily life, the subject here is still focus on portraiture, with the added study of colour introduced by the paint stains.
Within the portraiture, there is a great focus on the eyes as a way of engaging with the viewer. Realism and asymmetries are worked here meticulously. In a leap forward on the study, he introduces hands, also a very challenging element of the human study. But as portraiture has been a recurring theme throughout history, and may become monotone, he explores a new dimension by adding stain colours. The first technical challenge was to create every colour and tone using only the primary pigments - cyan, magenta, yellow and white. The study and creation of colour then becomes very apparent. The texture and volume comes after, with the use of the chiaroscuro (light and shade) as the main technique to achieve realism.
