Introducing Ignacio Miranda

135 artists featured in "Inside Job" which took place on the 7th and 8th of April on Level 6 of Tate Modern and was visited by over 3,000 people. The Rebel Magazine has been chatting to some of the Tate staff who showed their artwork. Today it's the turn of Ignacio Miranda

Q) Where did you grow up and what kind of education did you receive? "I grew up in a small town just outside Bilbao, in Northern Spain. I made it all the way to Uni but I got restless and dropped out during my first year as I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life! Because I was studying English at the time, I decided to come to London to practice the language as the perfect excuse for an adventure… And 24 years later, I am still here."

Q) How long have you been working at the Tate and what's the best show you've seen there? "Time flies at the speed of light. I have been working at Tate for almost 14 years now as a Visitor and Information Assistant and many great and not so great exhibitions have come and gone in that time. If you are sensitive to things, you can always pick up on something that can be inspirational or technically revealing, even if the themes or the visual content is not your thing. One that sticks out ( and it is a blatant and shameless source of inspiration for my painting at Inside Job ) is the Lichtenstein retrospective a few years ago. I was in heaven for over 3 months, as he is one of my art heroes. Being in the space surrounded by all those iconic works and much more was so uplifting, I think I cried inside when the show came to an end! I loved POP LIFE as an exhibition too, and all the little controversies that came with it. It was brimming with light and colour and cheekiness and clever stuff. I like art that gets people talking and it’s a bit provocative sometimes!"

Q) What can you tell me about the work that you exhibited in the Tate Modern show? "My painting for INSIDE JOB is called WE ROSE UP SLOWLY and as I mentioned earlier, it is directly inspired by one of pop art’s iconic images created by Roy Lichtenstein. I decided to create a brand new work for the exhibition rather than apply with something that was ready made. I had about 5 weeks to finish the large canvas and I enjoyed the deadline factor of it. In the original, we have your standard square jawed American hunk and pretty girl from the 1950s about to embrace in this dreamlike setting. What I did as a personal twist is remove the girl and swap her for another ginger hunk. I subverted the conventional expectation and added my own personal and visual experience as a gay man in the XXI century. The image is very pop and bright and looks like a fragment out of a comic book or graphic novel. I retained the original text which gives the piece its title. I had a lot of fun and it was a thrill to experience people’s reaction and feedback to it during the running of the exhibition. I love it that Tate has such emphasis on diversity and inclusion, I wanted to celebrate that support that I have felt all these years by including some boy on boy romance!"

Q) How can people find out more about your work - do you have a website or do Instagram? "I am currently in the process of creating a website for my creative output ( I think this is many artists’ Achilles heel, the working on the promotional side of things when you’d rather be creating!! ) but as it stands right now, Instagram is a bit my home for showcasing old and new stuff. I enjoy the immediacy of it and you can get to know me and my work a little bit better through it. My profile name there is iggstamatic."

Q) What's the best thing about working for the Tate? "The best thing about working at Tate is not just one thing but many. First and quite importantly, it gives me the flexibility to keep creating and making more of my art as I am now part time and the work-leisure-creative balance has been pretty much achieved nicely ( always room for improvement on this one, obviously ) . Also being exposed to all these new exhibitions and display changes, it is a luxury and privilege that we cannot really take for granted. I have my eyes peeled for anything all those artists may be able to give me in terms of technical knowledge and experience and all kinds of new tips that I could incorporate to my artistic practice at some point.The atmosphere at work is most of the time chilled and relaxed and we are really a big family and that is a great thing to remember. All families have their little moments obviously but I feel at home here so that says it all really."

"Inside Job": An exhibition of art by Tate Staff took place on Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG