'These are my jewels' New paintings by British artist Michael Onona.

Michael Onona’s paintings are beautiful, difficult and unforgettable. Which is why his recent London show Babysitting drew more than 2000 visitors over only five days, and why his work sells as fast as he can make it.

Now Barcelona’s cutting-edge Mito Gallery is offering another chance to view some of the paintings from Babysitting, alongside a series of striking new works.

The level of success Michael is now enjoying (“probably the last great artistic discovery of the 20th century”, Museums & Galleries Magazine) marks the culmination of a career that began when he was still a child. His precocious ability was spotted while still at school, and he was taken up by the media as something of an art prodigy. But this early acclaim – and the approaches from galleries that resulted from it – was immaterial to an artist who knew, even then, the importance of nurturing his talent away from the constraints and trends of the marketplace.

So he quietly carried on painting his extraordinary, voluptuous canvasses, devoting months to perfecting the dramatic fusion of emotion and physicality that invigorate each canvas. Increasingly, people responded to something in his uncompromising yet humane vision of life, and wanted more.

Having matured in to an artist as accomplished technically as imaginatively, Michael is now showing some of his most stunning work to date.

His unique synthesis of the obscene and the delicious, of innocence and experience, is showcased in a series of paintings that dare you not to look away: babies cuddle up to guns or wear Playboy bunny ears… gnarled old hands cradle a pregnant stomach…

These Are My Jewels, opening on December 14, confirms Michael’s place as a major talent in European painting. His works truly have to be seen to be believed. And those who do see them tend to fall under their peculiarly peaceful, but unnerving, spell.

www.michaelonona.com