An exhibition of the African works of the Spanish artist Miquel Barceló, widely regarded as one of the most important artists working today, is on view at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Miquel Barceló: The African Work focuses on works inspired by Barceló’s frequent stays in West Africa, where he has been a regular visitor since 1988 and where he has had a home, in the Dogon area of Mali, since the early 1990s. Comprising some 90 works, the exhibition ranges over the entire period of his association with West Africa, presenting works on paper – some being shown for the first time – large and small-scale paintings, sculptures, ceramics and sketchbooks. Also included is a large bronze sculpture of an elephant, Elefandret, 2007, situated in the Museum’s formal gardens.

Barceló’s creative output has been compared to such great Spanish masters as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Antoni Tapies and to outstanding contemporaries European artists such as Francesco Clemente and Anselm Kiefer. Alongside these major projects, for the past 20 years West Africa has played – and continues to play – a particularly important part in Barceló’s practice. Unlike many artists who have been fascinated with the region, Barceló is drawn not to the exoticism of the area but rather to the daily life of its inhabitants, which he presents in a series of portraits, domestic scenes, landscapes and still lifes.

Born in Majorca in 1957, Miquel Barceló studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Palma and the Fine Arts Academy in Barcelona. In 1982 he achieved international acclaim for his participation in Documenta 7 in Kassel. Barceló works with a wide-range of media and projects, from paintings and drawings, to backdrops for opera, murals and engravings, and terracotta and ceramic sculptures. From 2001 to 2006 Barceló worked on a project for the cathedral in Palma, covering an entire chapel in terracotta and then decorating it with images relating to the sixth chapter of the gospel of St John. Recent solo exhibitions include Pinacoteca do Estado, Săo Paulo, 2003; Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2004; Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich, 2005, and Sala Kubo, San Sebastián, 2005. He is currently creating a ceiling painting for the Human Rights Hall at the United Nations offices in Geneva. Barceló currently lives between Paris, Majorca and Mali.

A catalogue has been published with texts by Irish novelist Colm Tóibín and the Spanish poet and novelist José Carlos Llop, a chronology of Barceló’s time in Africa compiled by Amelie Aranguren, former assistant of the artist.

As you enter the exhibition you assume the role of ‘Dino Scientist’. Attempt to uncover important fossil evidence regarding the diet of the dinosaurs in the Laboratory and Dig Area. The virtual Dig allows you to use specialist tools to unearth teeth, claws and even the contents of a prehistoric stomach! From there visit The Lab and investigate what you’ve uncovered. Through a series of activities you can investigate the evidence you have exposed and then learn how fossils are prepared and used for research.

Leave the Dino Lab, journey into the past and enter the Dino Park where you can encounter the incredible creatures you’ve been investigating. Come face to face with seven life-sized, animatronic dinosaurs in a range of dramatic settings. From the impressive eight and a half-metre Baryonyx, through a terrifying pack of Velociraptors to the five fingered Iguanodon, the Dino Park allows you to see how these dinosaurs hunted, foraged and survived in such a hostile environment.