Amigo, 22cm
In the typical design of the Spanish painter, colorful and quirky figures frolic, which the painter captures here on the Buddy Bear "canvas" in absurd and comedic situations.
Buddy Bear miniature with separate glass base plate, packed in a transport-safe white color box. Material polyresin. Hand-painted.
Gustavo (Gustavo Penalver Vico) was born in Cartagena, Spain in 1939. He lives and works at his country estate near Capdepera on Mallorca.
In 1944 Gustavo moved to the island with his family and began painting at an early age. In the early 1960s, Gustavo worked in various major cities in Europe (Barcelona, Brussels, Paris), and the fascist regime targeted his art in Spain during the Franco dictatorship. Gustavo's friends in Germany invited him to the "Berliner Festwochen", so he was able to find safety this way. In 1976 he moved to Berlin altogether and worked at Kunsthaus Bethanien in Berlin-Kreuzberg until 1990. He produced small-format oil paintings and other works of art, and from 1977 his contacts with galleries in the USA took him to Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Washington, New York and Las Vegas.
Gustavo is particularly famous in Germany. The artist creates tapestries, sculptures, porcelain and graphics and paints house facades. The characteristic of his painting is colourful, bizarre figures, which can be found in comical or absurd situations in his pictures. The unique and almost independent art style is the picture titles of his works, such as: "Happy family dances daily for five minutes above the Mallorcan Alps".
In 2013, he created three 2m-tall Buddy Bears for a Mallorcan collector.
Gustavo has also been involved for many years with Christiane Herzog's cystic fibrosis foundation: "Artists help", and was honoured by the foundation for his commitment.