Juan Mengual started painting in 2014 when his mother, that is a very well-known local painter, told him to help her in a project she had in mind. A series of 22 collages dedicated to the great Spanish artist Mingote. Then he made some paintings for his friends, and he realized that he could have potential for art. He decided to take it seriously, so he went to London to have a proper art education. He chose The Art Academy because of the practical focus they have and the skills they teach, as well of all the conceptual and other skills an artist needs. Many of his artworks have a three-dimensional part so he decided to study sculpture as well, now he likes it as much as painting. His stay in London was very profitable, not only because of the art things he learned at the academy but for the chance to know artist from all over the world, the muse-ums, and exhibitions he could visit and knowing the art world at first hand that in London is very rich. When he finished his diploma he came back home, his first idea was to stay in London for a while but is very hard and expensive living there. He started making his own art and participated in a few exhibitions. In March 2020 he had his first solo exhibition but was cancelled because of Covid that he is still struggling because it makes very difficult to make plans.

Artist Statement
My work comes from the interest I’ve got from the unconscious and I use techniques that involve chance to make it arise. The experiences that made me as a person, what I´ve seen and where I´ve been, all the people I´ve met, the artworks I’ve been exposed, are what shaped my uncon-scious. But it also has a part from the collective one that all of us share. From the collective un-conscious I am particularly interested on the ancestral part of our brain, who kept us alive and thriving throughout thousands of years. Old myths come from here and our pattern recognition system, the one that makes us see faces everywhere or shapes in clouds. Few of my decisions are conscious while I work. I use chance as a starting point and very soon looks like my artworks have their own life and strange creatures appear. Life in general and art are often very serious, so I try that my creations have a fresh touch, I use cartoonish shapes, happy colors and refer-ences to popular culture to do so. Despite this a dark side arises in almost all of my artworks. The matter can be tough or have a sinister turn that, might not be obvious at first sight, but quite clear when you look with a bit of attention. The result of all this are colorful artworks in which you must keep looking, making your own interpretation and discovering the shapes that appear, which makes them immersive. It´s a kind of a game that I invite the spectator. There are more evident figures and other more open, quite often when you look at them again you find a different interpretation.