top of page

ISABEL MIQUEL ARQUES

Isabel Miquel Arqués is a Spanish artist currently working and living in Antwerp. At the age of ten, she got her first camera from her father, an entrepreneur and amateur photographer. After working in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and London with, amongst others Ilan Wolff, an expert in camera obscura, Isabel moved to Belgium to forge her own path, searching for the soul of the medium photography. The artist resolutely opts for the imperfection of experimentation, paying close attention to materiality, transparency, texture, and tactility. This manifested itself for the first time in the exhibition Agitation (2012 - Ingrid Deuss Gallery), in which Isabel showed works that are printed on old, yellowed, and torn newsprints, only to culminate in her recent solo A Study on Movement and Imperfections (2021 - Ingrid Deuss Gallery). Here be Lions (2015 - Ingrid Deuss Gallery), a project inspired by Toon Tellegen's Letters to Sleeping Beauty, had already made it clear that Isabel is a true storyteller, and her Music Box (an audiovisual contribution to the KADS - Art At The Schinkel in 2015 by the Soledad Senlle Art Foundation, Amsterdam) further confirmed that which earned her in 2019 an invitation by Catherine Lefebvre to work at the Karen Blixen Museum in Copenhagen. This resulted in the trilogy published by Ludion, 'Beyond Borders", a series of artistic dialogues with three female iconic artists, Karen Blixen, Virginia Woolf, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

The first book of the trilogy "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Karen Blixen" was launched in March 2022, along with an artist talk and exhibition at Geukens & De Vil Gallery.

The second book, "Beyond Borders-Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Virginia Woolf" was presented at Geukens & De Vil Gallery in 2023, along with an exhibition. 

The third and last book of the trilogy, "Beyond Borders-Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Georgia O'Keeffe" is scheduled for 2025, together with an exhibition and different related events in 2025.

Honorable Mention Hariban Award 2022

Series "The Spain of my Father"

Solo Exhibitions

2009/ Gallery Van De Weghe  (Antwerp) “Portrait with shrimp croquet”. Based on her book with the same title published by Ludion.
2010/ “Portrait with shrimp croquet”, Soledad Senlle Gallery - Amsterdam.
2012/ “Agitation” Ingrid Deuss Gallery – Antwerp
2015/ “Here be lions” Ingrid Deuss Gallery – Antwerp
2015/ Invited artist with her audiovisual project “Music box” to KADS (Kunst aan de Schinkel- Art along the Schinkel) in Amsterdam. Art in public spaces.
2016/ Artwork “To See” for the TAG Foundation - Antwerp.
2018/ “Après l’Averse/After the Downpour” Ingrid Deuss Gallery – Antwerp

2021/ Exhibition at Ingrid Deuss Gallery curated by Roxane Baeyens -  "Studies on movement and Imperfections"

2022/ Exhibition at Geukens & De Vil Gallery (Antwerp) of the first artistic dialogue of the trilogy Beyond Borders, "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquél Arques in dialogue with Karen Blixen"

2023/ "De Memòria" (From Memory) IEI- Sala Gòtica (Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs) 

2023/ Exhibition at Geukens & De Vil (Antwerp) of the second artistic dialogue of the trilogy Beyond Borders, "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Virginia Woolf" (published by Ludion)

2025/ Exhibition at Geukens & De Vil (Antwerp) of the third artistic dialogue of the trilogy Beyond Borders, "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquel Arques in dialogue with Georgia O'Keeffe" (published by Ludion)

Group Exhibition

2021/ "Unseen" (Amsterdam) Ingrid Deuss Gallery

2022/ Unseen Art Fair - September Amsterdam

2022/ Group exhibition curated by Els Wuyts in Villa Les Zephyrs exhibiting "Les oreilles de la Mer"

2023/ April-Finissage "Les oreilles de la Mer"

2023/ March 24 - Deuss Gallery

2023/ 10 march-14 may "De Memoria" IEI (Estudios Ilerdenses) Lleida -Spain

2024/ "The Long Goodbye" - Geukens & De Vil Gallery

Projects and Artist in Residence

2019/ Invited by Mostapha Romli as an artist in residency at the Center of Contemporary Art Ifitry, in Essaouira (Morocco)

2019/ Invited artist to develop a personal artistic project at Karen Blixen Museum - Copenhagen

Book Publications

"Portrait with shrimp croquet" (Ludion)

"Here be Lions" (Ingrid Deuss Gallery)

Beyond Borders trilogy (published by Ludion): "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Karen Blixen", "Beyond Borders-Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Virginia Woolf", "Beyond Borders- Isabel Miquel Arqués in dialogue with Georgia O'Keeffe" 

"An Ear a Shell or an Ear" (from the exhibit "Les Oreilles de la Mer"

bottom of page