JUAN JOSÉ MARTÍNEZ CÁNOVAS

Juan José Martínez Cánovas was born in Murcia in Spain in 1980. After graduating from the city’s Academy of Fine Arts, he won a grant to attend the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and completed a Masters in research into contemporary painting materials and techniques. Martínez Cánovas has also studied under two internationally acclaimed Spanish artists, Antonio López García and Pedro Cano, and their influence has had a profound impact on his work. Martínez Cánovas has won numerous awards, exhibited widely in Spain and abroad and his artwork is to be found in various Spanish public collections.

The art of Martínez Cánovas is shaped by a life-long fascination with mythology, science fiction and the concept of metamorphosis. Using pencil on paper or gesso, the artist upturns the world of classical portraiture with his hybrid human-animal figures. While adopting a fantastical language, seemingly distant from reality, his research nonetheless focuses on humankind and the multiple facets that define human complexity. His mystical, surreal and sometimes disquieting images are striking not only for their subject matter but also for their technical virtuosity.