Joan Gardy-Artigas 1938 -

Joan Gardy-Artigas (b. 18 June 1938 in France) is a Spanish painter, sculptor and ceramicist. He is the son of Josep Llorens Artigas (aso a famous ceramicist) and a collaborator of Joan Miró. He started to studying at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris in 1958. In 1959, he met Alberto Giacometti who encouraged him to open his own ceramics workshop in Paris, where he worked alongside Georges Braque and Marc Chagall. In 1960 he began to design his own sculptures. Working with Miró he created the monumental ceramic wall for the UNESCO building in Paris. He went on to work with Miró at his father's workshop in El Raco in Gallifa , northwest of Barcelona. This prolilfic cooperation created ceramic murals for Harvard University , the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul de Vence , Barcelona airport , The Kunsthaus in Zurich , the Wilhelm-Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, the IBM Building in Barcelona and for the Palais des Expositions et des Congrès in Madrid. Between 1981 and 1982 he constructed with Miró the 22 m high ceramic fountain Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird) for the Parc de Joan Miró in Barcelona. Working with Tapies in 1982, he produced a mosaic for the Plaça de Catalunya in Sant Boi de Llobregat, for which Tàpies received the Gold Medal of Catalonia. In 1990 he created a 10m high hand-painted, glazed, ceramic fountain in London. In 1989 he founded - in memory of his father - the Fundació Josep Llorens Artigas Tallers in El Raco in Gallifa. Its workshop has been visited by many renowned artists. The ash-fired kilns at El Raco (made in the Japanese style) give the glaze a unique appearance. Gardy-Artigas serves on the board of the foundation Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona.