David Badia Ferrer

* 1971

The Spanish artist David Badia Ferrer (*1971) is a creative personality. With an incredible ability to grasp concepts, he translates his quick learning into artistic expression. His perspective on the world around him is unique, setting him apart from others. His positive energy allows him to put every situation into perspective, and his personality is distinctly ironic and extroverted. All these traits contribute to him being an artist with an extravagant character.

Although he was aware of his drawing talents, he only decided to apply them in 2015 to discover how far these abilities could take him.

Badia Ferrer dedicated himself to an intense two-year creative process, resulting in more than 25 large-scale, vibrant artworks. The explosive impact of his pieces surprises every viewer — including himself. He is often asked where his ideas for color and the format of his large artworks come from, but he struggles to find the right words to explain it. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that he suppressed his artistic side in connection with his personality for too long: a positive, pragmatic, and emotionally reserved character who never received formal artistic training.

He uses only three colors: blue, red, and yellow, along with white. He spends a lot of time intensely studying the photographs he uses as references for his work. This study of photos is combined with sketching on the canvas. In this process, an action plan is created so that when Badia Ferrer begins to paint, he has a detailed vision of what he wants to achieve in his works.

To avoid being influenced by colors beforehand, the artist always uses black-and-white photographs as references.

However, perhaps the least known characteristic of his works is their visual impact in the dark. The artist develops the painting for a certain time in dim light to create the effect that it seems to emit its own light.

Many collectors of his paintings forgo artificial lighting to experience the unique impression of the artworks in natural light.

Badia Ferrer is an amateur guitarist and appreciates talented musicians. His enthusiasm for guitars and rock music can even be seen in the brushwork of his pieces. He is fascinated by capturing the expressions of musicians while they play.

In addition to choosing a suitable photograph for his painting, the artist invests a lot of time in exploring the character of the portrayed subject, understanding them, and then projecting that onto the canvas. The search for the special and the mysterious drives Badia Ferrer, as he seeks to elicit something from his photographic counterpart and translate it into visual effects on the painting.

The artist considers graffiti a modern and avant-garde artistic discipline that requires immense talent. It is a form of artistic expression where contemporary artists find refuge. In the future, he wants to incorporate his signature into his works using graffiti. Until he finds a way to implement his technique with graffiti on canvas, he has a playful trick up his sleeve. A small pencil-drawn figure of himself, resembling graffiti, humorously depicts the artist at work.

David Badia Ferrer currently lives and works on the island of Mallorca.