Antony Micallef, born in 1975, is considered one of the most innovative British painters of the present day. He received his artistic training from John Virtue, among others, which establishes a direct link to the tradition of the London School and artists such as Frank Auerbach. Micallef celebrated his breakthrough in the mid-2000s and has consistently developed his style ever since. In his more recent works, such as the „Raw Intent“ series, he intensively explores the expressive power of oil paint. His gestural paintings use his own face as a motif, but function as profound explorations of human identity and emotion.

Micallef's creative process is characterised by a physical intensity that he often describes as a violent struggle in which paint is thrown onto the canvas and knocked off again. He works with heavily laden, texturally rich canvases in which the pure materiality of the paint is in the foreground. While his early works still had clear figurative traits and prints, his current oil paintings tend more towards abstraction. He has been internationally recognised, among other things, through his inclusion in the collection of the London Design Museum and his selection as one of 200 visionaries worldwide by the Louis Vuitton brand.