Nisġa: Storja Kontemporanja

Can the Maltese artist be defined? … is there a preference for particular topics or themes ? … and does the nation come into this definition? 

A team of curators and creatives have come together to present the complex and multifaceted identity of the Maltese artist. Twentieth century works of art from public and private collections, including works in traditional media juxtaposed against video art, have been carefully chosen to create meaningful dialogues. Works on display include key pieces, some of which have rarely been on display or mostly known through books. 

This celebration of the Maltese artist's identity builds on the choice of artists published in the book 'Malta: Six Modern Artists' (1991), five of whom were from Valletta. The story narrated here is but a weave of themes between traditional and contemporary, modern and classical. 

The project also comes with its own exhibition catalogue purposely published for the occasion by Midseabooks. 

This exhibition is a Valletta 2018 project, purposely commissioned for the European Capital of Culture programme, in collaboration with Spazju Kreattiv.

Artists in this exhibition include: Carmelo Mangion, Darren Tanti, Patrick Dalli, Victor Agius, Pierre Portelli, Harry Alden, Anton Agius, Gabriel Caruana, Austin Camilleri, George Preca, Vincent Apap, Alfred Chircop, Norbert Attard, Isabelle Borg, Frank Portelli, Vince Briffa, Raymond Pitrè, Josef Kalleya, George Fenech and Ruth Bianco.

Jointly curated by Sandro Debono and Irene Biolchini 
Exhibition design: Nigel Baldacchino

Artwork: Gabriel Caruana (detail)
Photo: Elisa von Brockdorff