In October 2009 Dave McKean held his first exhibition in our country at Galería Artizar. On that occasion, he was taking part in the X Fotonoviembre exhibition with his series Pholk, a sequence of disturbing portraits inspired by the Kent Folk Festival, the county where he lives.

While the name of Dave McKean–born in Taplow, Berkshire, in 1963–does not circulate widely in the world of photography, his name becomes more and more significant when speaking of illustration, graphic novels or editorial design due to his innovative spirit, being acclaimed with enthusiasm and admiration by his fans. In these fields, Dave McKean–the cover designer of Miracleman, Hellblazer and The Sandman, the comic book artist of Arkham Asylum and Signal to Noise, the creator of Cages–is nothing but a celebrity.

The project he will exhibit at Galería Artizar this time follows this line of work. An Ape’s Progress features the illustrations prepared by Dave McKean for a multidisciplinary project carried out in collaboration with the poet Matthew Sweeney and the saxophonist Iain Bellamy, which follows the adventures of a monkey that escaped from a circus in China to start a new life in the streets of Manchester.

This exhibition also includes some drawings and paintings for Smoke & Mirrors, the most recent collaboration between Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman, whose paths crossed for the first time in 1987 to give rise to Violent Cases, a story by Neil Gaiman brilliantly illustrated by Dave McKean. Since then, their paths have always been intertwined, having collaborated in great projects such as Black Orchid, Coraline, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and the legendary series The Sandman.

An Ape’s Progress (and other Tales) will open on 11^th December at 20:00. Dave McKean will also be signing autographs at the Gallery on the next day, Saturday, 12^th December, at 12:00.