Malaga artist, famous for his wide-eyed cat designs, launches new line for Lladró porcelain in Spain

Renowned Malaga artist Javier Calleja has turned to porcelain as he works with Valencian brand Lladró on a new contemporary art line.

He has launched the first instalment of Art Editions, a collection by the well-known porcelain brand that showcases a series of limited-edition collaborative pieces with big-name and emerging artists.

Calleja's collection, showcased at the Miami Art Week on Thursday, is titled You Choose One and features three of his original wide-eyed designs in porcelain: the child, devil cat and angel cat.

The child piece embodies childlike innocence contrasted with devil horns and a mischievous smirk. While the battle between good and evil is represented in the two cats, one with bat wings and another with angel wings.

Calleja's designs are complicated, but especially complex when using porcelain. Calleja's pieces also include glass, which helps bring out the expressions of the child and the cats and stays true to what Calleja is so well-known for in his work: that famous innocent, wide-eyed look.

With Nanzuka in Miami

Calleja's venture into porcelain comes after designs with a range of other brands including Rolls-Royce cars, Vans sneakers and Rod Almayate's jewellery.

Calleja's work also features at the exhibition of Tokyo-based Nanzuka Underground gallery, which is present at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair this week. One of the pieces of You Choose One will be exhibited in the Japanese gallery.

"After seven decades revolutionising the world of porcelain, Art Editions is a clear example of the brand's innovative power, based on the know-how of its craftsmen and the versatility of porcelain as a vehicle for artistic expression," said Cristina Egido, Lladró's global marketing director.

With this new project, the Malaga-born painter and sculptor rounds off a big 2023, which included a long-awaited return to his hometown and the inauguration of his exhibition at the Unicaja foundation cultural centre.