Miguel Del-Rey Vergara is a Spanish sculptor and figurative artist. Born and raised in Madrid, Spain. Miguel is a graduate from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2018, at the same enrolling in the Art Student’s League of New York in September 2016.

My work celebrates the human condition by depicting the body and its infinite expressive ability. The human figure is the most complex form a sculptor can ever attempt to represent, yet the more you explore it the more you realize that it is a language of it’s own and it offers one of the most effective approaches to communicate ideas and emotions. I am interested in presenting the human figure in such a way that there is a perfect balance between realism and abstraction. When I depict the nude figure as my subject, I strip it of such elements as identity, time and place to focus the viewer’s attention on what it is to be human. The interplay of what is depicted versus what is cropped or simplified, creates an interesting dialogue and evokes feelings through elements such as rhythm and composition.

This choices are the result of understanding the human form as pure beauty and the main subject of my work. Cropping the figure is only a natural consequence of this way of thinking. I am not trying to tell a story with my figures, my figures are the story, they are telling their own story and they are their own subject. When people ask me why is my sculpture missing a leg my answer is always the same. “I don’t think my sculpture is going anywhere alone so I am sure it won’t need it”.

If my sculpture was a real person or trying to represent any particular one then it would certainly be missing a leg, but It isn’t. I am simply creating human form, and my concerns are similar to those of an abstract painter.

My work is meant to be enjoyed with out a written statement to support it. The focus of my artistic efforts is to create sculptures that can be judge upon their aesthetic attributes without any later input from the artist.

I believe my sculptures should outlive me and my opinion about them. My art is self explanatory and self justified. That is why I work with the human figure because I hope for my art to be enjoyed in a thousand years just as much as it can be enjoyed now.

As an artist, I keep a very close, intimate relationship with my process, and in that sense, it goes beyond the physical manipulation of material. I try to be aware of my state of mind during the creative process, letting my emotions and intuition lead the way of my sculpting. Confidence is a huge factor. When confidence is induced in the sculpture, the form flows in space in a convincing way. Even the less-refined parts should show this confidence in their abstraction. The process of creating these sculptures is an experience that feels like meditation and is very intimate; spiritual.
Miguel del Rey
Jul 14, 2018