I love MYA Gallery. If you haven’t been already, please go and check out this amazing space.

Under the new creative leadership of the incredible Tina Ziegler, a talented curator, art dealer and gallerist I have been blessed to have known for a number of years, the place truly shines.

A little known fact is that I attended one of Tina’s brilliant courses on curating a couple of years back. Her passion and dedication to the art world is massively inspiring.

I was there to see a screening of ‘BCN – Rise and Fall’ by Aleix Gordo Hostau and Gustavo López Lacalle. A beautiful look at art on the streets of Barcelona. Once a celebration of creativity, Barcelona had no rules around creating art in the city, and people were able to paint freely. What resulted was a brilliant explosion of life, with art all over the streets and people coming together to create something truly wonderful. This changed in the late 2000’s, when the council changed their stance on this and made it illegal. Any person found painting/pasting on the streets became subject to a massive fine, so what resulted was a period of artistic dictatorship. The walls were wiped ‘clean’, and perceived ‘order’ was restored. There were no legal paint sites.

This drove the scene back underground, a familiar place to many people who make up part of this community. The creative brilliance of collective collaboration ended however, with many artists heading to other cities to paint more freely.

Today green shoots are starting to appear, and artistic projects are started unfold across the city once again. There is hope for Barcelona yet.

For me, art should be everywhere, enjoyed by everyone, whether you are the painter or the admirer. My love affair with the art world began in 2012, and continues to this day. Art in the outside world means reaching and inspiring a whole new audience every day. It’s a chance to inspire young minds to try something a little different.

As a youngster, I was always attracted to and intoxicated by things that embodied any form of rebellion, that went a little against the grain of what society deemed to be acceptable. So I fully understand the need to captivate these young minds in the right way. As a tee total vegan, I am still living out my own form of mass market rebellion 😉

Also, frankly, I love anything that makes this a world a little more beautiful, anything that expands my mind a little further, anything that gives me pause for thought, a moment to be inspired by others through their creative expression.

One of my favourite Spanish artists has to be Pez, with his perfect smiling fish faces – art at its most fun and vibrant of all. I’ve often felt his little fish embody my spirit in artistic form. I dare you to look at one of his smiling little fish faces and not smile. They are superb.

Also from the film, I have to mention the incredible work of Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada. His large scale work is some of the most beautiful work I have ever seen. His giant painting of Christian Guemy‘s eyes at Moniker Art Fair a couple of years back, remains imprinted on my eyeballs to this day. To witness him creating that first hand, was utterly awe inspiring.

Check out a trailer of the film here:

Kaleidoscope, the exhibition celebrating of some of Barcelona’s finest artists, runs until April 3rd, 2015 at MYA Gallery.