The Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA) is pleased to announce the exhibition „The Future Is Stupid“ the first major survey exhibition dedicated to the development of the renowned British painter Antony Micallef is dedicated to.
The exhibition celebrates more than twenty years of career of the artist and unites over fifty key works from Micallef's oeuvre and a impressive new series of paintings created especially for the museum presentation. Together, these works offer a comprehensive overview of one of the most striking and influential painters of the early 21st century.
„The Future Is Stupid“ was realised in close cooperation with the artist within the framework of a one-year artist-in-residence programme, sponsored by the MUCA Foundation, developed. It offers a rare opportunity to experience the full range of Micallef's work. Bringing together painting, sculpture, animation and politically engaged projects, the exhibition showcases an artist who continually pushes the expressive and critical potential of contemporary painting.
The exhibition "The Future Is Stupid“ traces the development of Micallef's artistic practice, from his appearance in the public eye after the Recognised with the prestigious BP Portrait Prize up to his Appointment to the Louis Vuitton Visionary At the beginning of the 2020s.
In addition to important paintings from his entire career, the exhibition will include a selection of rare bronze editions that have been on display since their creation. Presentation at the Royal Academy were no longer shown publicly in 2008.
The exhibition also highlights Micallef's wider creative practice through several significant interdisciplinary projects. These include the impressive animated film for Peter Gabriel's song Love Will Heal, which was organised in cooperation with the Oscar-winning Aardman Animation Studio. The film will be shown in the MUCA Bunker and offers visitors a immersive encounter with Micallef's visual language.
Also on view at the Bunker: The exhibition reflects the artist's ongoing engagement with the dynamics of modern politics and also explores the impact of Micallef's widely publicised Trump project.
In this intervention, Micallef published a high-resolution image of a painting depicting the US president, packaged as a Marlboro cigarette design.
The image was downloaded more than 100,000 times within two weeks, then reproduced and shared at protests around the world, demonstrating the Contemporary art's ability to move quickly in the global political discourse.
