Andreas Miraglia

**Biography**

My name is Andreas Miraglia. I was born in Stoccarda, Germany, on 29 November 1969. At the age of four, together with my parents, I moved to Italy, where I still live today. I studied until the third year of middle school, after which I began my working life as a goldsmith's assistant and then as a metalworker. In 2003 I went through a very dark period and was no longer able to work. During that time I was helped by doctors, and I was also supported by friends and acquaintances. During my convalescence, I began drawing by chance as a way to occupy my free time, and I did it for enjoyment. I discovered my artistic vein in a painting workshop at a rehabilitation facility. Thanks to the advice of a care worker and of an art consultant and critic, I began my journey into the world of art with figurative abstract paintings. Drawing on the visions that came to my mind when I was relaxed, I fixed them as sketches in a small notebook, then developed them, with the changes I considered appropriate, as drawings on larger sheets of paper measuring 20x30 cm and 30x40 cm. My techniques were acrylic colours and, later, lacquered acrylic colours.

There was then another group, specifically an association. The association also had a painting workshop, where an operator helped me a great deal. An operator at the association, who is an artist and had studied art, unlike me, as I am a self-taught artist, told me that my way of expressing art would be more interesting and striking on larger surfaces. I listened to him, and I felt freer and more fluid in developing the final stage of each of my artistic expressions. I therefore started with 70x100 cm and finally settled on 100x100 cm, a size I still use today. I experiment with more than one technique: lacquered acrylic, pencil as a colour, oil pastel and 3D collage, combined with other techniques within the same work. The technique I enjoy most is oil pastel on wooden panel, always in the 100x100 cm format.

**Curriculum**

My name is Andreas Miraglia, and I am a self-taught artist working in figurative abstract painting. My first exhibition was La rassegna Veneta, Il Piccolo Quadro, held at the Galleria d'Arte Città di Padova Associazione Culturale Artistica, in via San Francesco – vic. S. Margherita 2, Padua, on 19 December 2010. My second exhibition was Arte Geyser, held at Parco S. Felice e Fortunato 229, Vicenza, on 26 September 2015. At the same location, I took part in a third exhibition entitled Insoliti accostamenti d'arte. In 2020, through my registration on the art portal Pitturiamo, I took part in the competition Artista d'Avanguardia, under the supervision of Vittorio Sgarbi, the well-known art critic. I also took part in the festival Desidera, Camera Fenix, in cooperation with the association Il Sestante, in Trieste, in 2021. In 2022, in collaboration with Pitturiamo and Queen Art Studio Gallery of Padua, I took part in the international fair Art 3F in Marseille, France. Finally, in December 2022, in collaboration with the association Effetto Arte, I took part in the Primo Tour Biennale d'Europa in Paris, Barcelona, London and Venice, where I exhibited at the Shoreditch Gallery in London.