13 january 2022, Flor Linckens
Last chance: Isabel Miquel Arques in Ingrid Deuss Gallery
Until 15 January, Ingrid Deuss Gallery in Antwerp has programmed an exhibition by the Spanish artist Isabel Miquel Arques: 'A Study on Movement and Imperfections'.
In her own words, Miquel Arques has a great penchant for beauty, because there is already so much uglyness in the world. She inherited that love from her father, who was a photographer too, as well as a concert pianist and a businessman. When his daughter was ten years old, he gave her her first camera: a Kodak Instamatic 25. But her culturally rich childhood is also marked by a chosen frugality, in which a great deal of importance is attached to small things. Miquel Arques adopted this way of life, which is a determining factor within her own working method, in which she only makes use of the camera and natural light. The photographer is a self-taught artist. Nearly every photography technique has passed through her hands; from classic photography to a pinhole camera. After a few jobs as an assistant for a photography gallery and a camera obscura specialist, she moved to London. Today the photographer lives and works in Antwerp.
Isabel Miquel Arques, Studies on Marie, 2021, Ingrid Deuss Gallery
In addition to her love for beauty, Miquel Arques is also charmed by small imperfections. She moves between tradition and contemporary photography, always looking for the soul of the medium. The artist does not make technically perfect reproductions, but instead, she offers room for small errors and experiments. For instance, she also experimented with different printing materials. The photographer's work is indebted to the medium of painting, in terms of composition, colour and materiality. This results in works that are marked by transparency and texture, works that álmost seem to invite the viewer to touch it. In terms of content, her work is inspired by a multitude of sources: from history and cinema to personal traces, desire and the work of writers such as Toon Tellegen.
Isabel Miquel Arques, Study on movement 2, 2021, Ingrid Deuss Gallery
Miquel Arques: “My work is bound to the perception of time and how it shapes our present. It’s bound to the time’s spectrum, immediacy, nostalgia, known, unknown, possibility and future.”
In 2009, she published the photography book ‘Portret met Garnalenkroket’ (‘Portrait with Shrimp croquette’, in which she captured 48 leading figures who determine the cultural life in Belgium, including Luc Tuymans, Jan Hoet, Michael Borremans, Dirk Braeckman and Stephan Vanfleteren.
Isabel Miquel Arques, Torero, 2013, Ingrid Deuss Gallery
