Javier Calleja is a Spanish artist born in 1971 in Malaga, Spain. He rose to art world prominence thanks to his instantly recognisable figurative works, which often feature wide-eyed characters with exaggerated proportions. The Spanish artist’s practice spans painting, sculpture, and works on paper, as well as an array of editioned work and merchandise. Calleja has become an international sensation with strong solo museum exhibitions as well as several solo gallery shows in cities such as Hong Kong, Greece, Germany, Tokyo, Spain, Rome and London.

At Christie’s Modern and Contemporary Art Evening sale in Hong Kong on July 2020, the artist had an auction record when his work WHAT? (2018) sold for HK$3 million, six times higher than its high estimate. Following this, Phillips on Dec 2020 sold the artwork No More Stories (2019) for HK$4 million, well over the 300-500k estimate. In March 2021, Calleja’s secondary-market record broke US$1 million for the first time, when his 2019 painting Waiting for a While sold for HK$8.8 million (US$1.1 million).