Artospective: Hyper Realistic Figurative Paintings by Philip Munoz.

From the Brush of Artist - "My work is concerned with the notion of glamour and its role in female social identity. I am interested in the idea of beauty through transformation and I am particularly engaged by the highly personalised looks adorned by so many women today. Often seductive and always demanding of attention, one is drawn in, yet inevitably kept emotionally and physically at a distance. In particular, the temporary and fragile nature of the make-up often used to conjure up such effects, forces one to play the role of voyeur, never fully engaging with the illusion.

This is ever true with the digital image (exemplified by its use in the forum of social media) playing up and playing with the physical reality of the types of models I choose to paint. However, photography still remains an essential tool in my work. I find it creates an emotional platform to connect with the subject, whilst the staging and the artificiality of photoshoot serve to enhance the visual language of the imagery and the subsequent painting.

I am a self-taught painter having graduated in a degree in biochemistry at the university of Bristol. I have been a resident of Jamaica Street Studios in Bristol since 2007. I am represented by the Albemarle Gallery (now Pontone Gallery) in London.

In the last few years, my work has increasingly focused on creating portraits and figures immersed in the urban context, whether a close-up examination of the glamorous and modified, adorned with tattoos and piercings or a figure caught in a fleeting moment of city life.

I am always drawn to the vibrant and youthful, care-free characters that I see everyday outside the doors of my studio. I am lucky to reside in a beautifully eclectic area of Bristol city where fashion and identity are of foremost importance, providing constant inspiration for my work.

Tattoos are of particular interest to me. Traditionally the trademark of masculine rebellion, they have now been embraced by the world of art, fashion and glamour redefining them as an art form in their own right, independent of age, sex or class. From imagining, to design, execution and rendering on skin, light and subsequent paint, across a multitude of media and surface, paying homage to their existence has become a pivotal feature of much of my recent work.

More than ever, I continue to explore the use of paint, mark-making and surface texture within the framework of my hyperrealist technique to produce paintings that have a life that is more than purely an image on a screen".