'Mr. Günter, The Cat Show' is on its way to becoming one of the most successful exhibitions ever hosted in Malaga city. The installation, at the Unicaja Cultural Centre Foundation.
The Malaga-born artist has displayed his entire creative universe in the immense rooms of this 18th century building. Calleja's playful, mischievous and universal approach is seen in more than 200 works, including canvases, sculptures, drawings and exclusive editions of 'art toys'.
In the middle of the 18th century cloister, a huge cat welcomes visitors with its big shining eyes. Mr. Günter is the latest character to join the artist's imaginary world - a nod to his cat Günter Gambita - and the master of ceremonies of this journey through the last seven years of the Malaga-born artist, just when he began to explore the possibilities of these childlike characters and freed himself from spatial limits.
On the first floor, as a witness to that moment, is the painting that marked the beginning of the change, his first child's face measuring 26x19 centimetres ('No title', 2015). A few metres away, his latest piece: the largest canvas he has ever painted, a work measuring 2.30x1.95 metres - plus the immense wooden frame - where the phrase 'You just call out my name' can be read.
It is one of the six unpublished canvases created especially for the Malaga exhibition - paintings where the characters gain a body and a world around them. Along with the immense paintings hanging on the wall, a total of 25 sculptures are spread around the gallery, some of them already emblematic of his career: from the first one he created for Tokyo in fibreglass and glass ('Pencil boy', 2018, accompanied by a notebook with more than 80 drawings) to his famous revision of Mickey Mouse for Disney Asia in aluminium. An entire room is occupied by the world's most popular mouse, along with the preparatory works for the design.
An impressive table and giant wooden chair dominate one of the most personal rooms of this exhibition, the one that recreates his studio, a space that has been intervened by the artist with pen-and-ink drawings on the wall accompanying sketches of some of the brands he collaborates with, 'Calleja-style' portraits of family and friends, or the front page he did on the day of the inauguration for SUR.
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