Capriccio at L'Escargot: A Soho Debut for an Artist Worth Watching

There are evenings at L'Escargot that feel like they were made for discovery - and the private view of Capriccio on 16th February was precisely one of them. The oldest French restaurant in London played host to the debut London exhibition of Miguel Carranza, a 22-year-old illustrator, whose expressive, character-driven work filled the space with exactly the kind of wit, warmth and visual intelligence that Soho tends to bring out in people.

Working across ink, watercolour and graphite, Carranza's drawings navigate fashion, lifestyle, history and humour with an ease that belies his age. There's a playfulness to the compositions - sartorial observations, visual storytelling, figures caught in moments of comic dignity - but underpinning it all is a genuine draughtsman's eye and a beautifully considered sense of construction. Nothing here is thrown together. Everything earns its place on the wall.

The title Capriccio feels exactly right - the word, borrowed from the tradition of fanciful architectural and artistic compositions, captures the spirit of work that follows its own logic while remaining entirely coherent. Carranza is clearly an artist with a strong internal world, and one already confident enough to share it.

The turnout at the private view reflected the warmth of the reception - and Carranza himself was characteristically perceptive about the match between his work and the setting. "L'Escargot is a perfect space for the type of media and subjects I'm working with," he said - "lively and light stuff but still with great attention to detail." As descriptions of both an artist and a restaurant go, you'd struggle to improve on that.

Watch this one. He's only just arrived.

Follow Miguel Carranza on Instagram: @miguelxcarranza