Miguel Ruiz Jimenez was born in Otura, Granada (Spain) on 6 January 1949.
Aged 7, he was already making shapes at a potter’s wheel at his father’s workshop.
By 15, he had a workshop of his own in Jun (Granada) and was attending secondary school at night, with a major in chemistry and anatomy. He also went to night classes at a trade school where he studied repoussé drawing and modelling.
In 1979 he undertook exhaustive research to recover the “LOZA DORADA” (Lusterware) ceramics. His crowning achievement in this specialised field was to research and conduct an in-depth study of the most important “LOZA DORADA” works of all times, one by one, and to reproduce them faithfully. We refer to the almost unrepeatable “VASOS DE LA ALHAMBRA” (the Alhambra urns).
Meanwhile, he continued to make sculptures: a monument for the town-twinning between Granada and Coral Gables in Florida (USA), murals for the Spanish Embassy in Algiers, the coating for the leaning tower at the Andalusia’s stand at the universal exhibition held at Seville in 1992, collections such as the “EXTERMINIO DE LA MENTE” (The Extermination of the Mind), “LOS HOMBRES ARCO” (The Arch Men), and other works.
In October 1995, as another aspect of his work as a sculptor, he inaugurated the first phase of his “PABELLON DE LAS ARTES” (Arts Pavilion) project with a group of avant-garde architectural sculptures that lend a unique personal touch to his work. They are reminiscent of the Renaissance merging of sculpture and architecture followed by Michelangelo and other artists.
The doorway leading to the “PABELLON DE LAS ARTES” is a remarkable iron gate and door inspired by the architecture of the grand pipe organs.
Currently he is working in an architectural context on a sculpture of huge dimensions entitled “HOMBRE ARCO” (10m x 12m). It is made with large blocks of high-fired stoneware materials to which he gives texture and a patina with his own volatilization techniques.
The sculpture will be the first part of a mural fifteen meters long and four meters high that will surround the south side of the hill on which the pavilion stands. Work on the mural, entitled “KOROS YBRIS ATE”, is already under way. It is made with a combination of high-fired glazed materials, bronze, brass, crystallized materials, special concrete and stone.
In 1997, his “VASOS DE LA ALHAMBRA” (Alhambra urns) project was shown in UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. The monographic exhibition was a huge international success that led the UNESCO’s international committee of Architects to add Miguel Ruiz’s work to the organization’s art collection.
In 1988, he was awarded the international Côte des Arts award in France.
In 1999, he intervened in the artistic furnishing of the palace (a replica of the Alhambra) in Rihad, Saudi Arabia, built the by the country’s ruling monarch. He made a complete collection of the Alhambra Urns, tiles, murals and other Lusterware pieces to furnish the royal household.
He is the author of the book “EPOPEYA DEL BARRO” (An Epic of Clay) and has written and directed the narration for a documentary on the essence of his alchemy in ceramics, sculpture and architecture.
He has given crash courses and lectures to groups of teachers and artists in several countries.
At the start of 2000, Miguel Ruiz Jimenez, together with Julio Romero de Torres, Picasso and Velazquez, was selected to represent Andalusian art throughout the ages in Japan.
In 2005 he began a private sculpted architecture project in the Murcia region, which is ongoing in 2008.
In 2006 he made an 18m high sculpture for a traffic island in Huelva, Spain.
That same year, he made a sculpture in Cor-ten steel in the memory of a group of fishermen lost at sea (Province of Granada).
There is a summary of his work on page 327, Volume One of the dictionary “Historia del Arte en Andalucia” (The History of Art in Andalusia).
The American magazine Aranco featured the work and ceramic research of Miguel Ruiz on the front page and in an eleven page article in an edition that sold 380,000 copies worldwide.
His ceramic works and sculptures are disseminated in countless places in Spain, France, Germany, Arab countries, Italy, Japan, Latin America and the United States (New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas).
In 2007 he made a 50 square meter mural in a combination of materials: stoneware, stainless steel and Cor-ten steel (Province of Granada).
In 2009 he designs and finishes the hall of the Cathedral Hotel close to the Cathedral of Granada.
He undertakes the restitution of the Fortuny plaque in the house of the architect Carlos Sanchez, where the two originals where located .
An infinite number of exhibitions and shows are evidence of his long career worldwide: In Spain from north to south, the United States, Germany, Japan and many more.
