About

Miriam Escofet

My work has evolved over the years through many themes and ideas, including still life, architecture and perspective, allegory, imaginary composition and most recently portraiture. But the unifying passion in all my paintings is describing a sense of space, volume, atmosphere and detail, arriving at a kind of hyper real expression of the subject matter.

I am very interested in making, process and technique. I studied 3D Design at art school and worked in clay for a few years before settling full time on painting. My work is classically inspired and the journey to a painting can be very multi-disciplinary, often involving the construction of props, dioramas or elaborate maquettes, as well the use of perspective.

I paint mainly in oils, although I do explore other media.  My technique is extremely detailed, applying many layers and glazes to achieve a sense of space, mood and character. An oil painting can take months to finish.

For me paintings act as portals – worlds one can visually step into and be transported and sometimes even transformed by. I believe the primary function of art is to trigger a moment of transcendence in the viewer, in short to fill one with wonder.

 ©Aliona Adrianova

For the past decade or so portraiture has become the main theme of my work, from commissions to more personal work where I explore allegorical themes.
In 2018 I was awarded the 1st Prize in the BP Portrait Award for my work  ‘An Angel at my Table’ a portrait that aimed to be a very personal depiction of my mother whilst at the same time trying to convey a sense of the ‘Universal Mother’
In 2019 I was commissioned to paint a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
In 2020 I was elected a Member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters

BIOGRAPHY:
Born in Barcelona in 1967, moved to the UK in 1979
1990 Graduated (BA Hons) in 3D Design at Brighton School of Art
Exhibited widely internationally, including many solo exhibitions
Selected for the BP Portrait Award exhibition several times and regularly selected for The Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibitions
Elected a member of Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2020
Commissioned to paint a portrait of The Queen for The FCDO 2019
Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2018

AWARDS
Elected a member of Royal Society of Portrait Painters 2020
Winner of the BP Portrait Award 2018
Awarded the Burke’s Peerage Foundation Prize for Classically Inspired Portraiture 2015

NOTABLE SITTERS
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Professor Helen Moore, President of Corpus Christi College Oxford
Professor Sir Mark Welland, Master of St Catharine’s College Cambridge
Professor Margaret Stanley OBE, Hon Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge
Christos Lazari, Lazari Investments
John Godfrey CBE, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire

NOTABLE COLLECTIONS
Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
St Catharine’s College, Cambridge
People’s Portraits Collection, Girton College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Christ’s College, Cambridge

EXHIBITIONS
SOLO:
2013 / 14 Miriam Escofet & Jose Escofet, John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh
2010 / 11 Jose Escofet & Miriam Escofet, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
2009 Albemarle Gallery, London
2007 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris
2005 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris
2001 Albemarle Gallery, London
1998 Albemarle Gallery, London
1997 Rafael Valls Gallery, London
1996 Christopher Wood Gallery, Mallett of Bond Street, London

SELECTED GROUP:
2025 CBPP Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibiton, The Department Store, Brixton, London
2025 Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition, Mall galleries, London
2025 Beyond The Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2025 7th John Ruskin Prize shortlist exhibition, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
2024 CBPP Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibiton, The Department Store, Brixton, London
2024 yearly since 2012 Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition, Mall galleries, London
2023 / 24 Pintura Figurativa Contemporánea China y Española, Hangzhou, Beijing, Madrid
2023 MIMESIS – Representational Art, MEAM Museum, Barcelona
2023 CBPP Contemporary British Portrait Painters exhibiton, The Department Store, Brixton, London
2022 Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing prize, London and touring
2021 ‘Women Painting’ MEAM Museum, Barcelona
2019 – 2020 Contemporary Spanish Realism, Hoki Museum and touring, Japan (MEAM
Barcelona)
2019 ‘The Albemarle Relaunch’ Pontone Gallery, Lodon
2018 BP Portrait Award The National Portrait Gallery, London. Awarded First Prize
2018 MEAM Museum, Women Artists of Today, Barcelona
2017, 2015 MEAM Museum, Figurativas, Barcelona
2013 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2012, 2010, 2009, 2007 BP Portrait Award exhibition 2012 at The National Portrait Gallery
2006 10th Anniversary Show, Albemarle Gallery, London
2005 ‘Maitres Conteporaines de l’Imaginaire’ , Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris
2000 ‘Millenium Exhibition’ at the Albemarle Gallery, London
1999 ‘du Reel a l’Imaginaire’, Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris
1999 ‘Annual Still – Life and Trompe l’Oeil Show’, Albemarle Gallery, London
1996 trompe l’oeil paintings, Rafael Valls Gallery, London
1994 Saanen Gallery, Gstaad, Switzerland
1990 Mallett of Bond Street, London