Javier Calleja is known for his wide-eyed, signature style portraits. His darkly humorous paintings have an alluring simplicity and a candid emotional force.

Calleja’s work is equally sarcastic as it is sensitive. His portraits depict stylised figures with exaggerated heads and big, melting eyes, reminiscent of Manga or Anime characters. Scrawled across their t-shirts, phrases such as “FUCK YOU ALL” and “That’s the way” undercut the cutesy innocence of the figures. The perfectly merged gradients of their facial expressions are contrasted by flat, single-colour backgrounds and the loose line-work that illustrates their bodies.