Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) has launched its second exhibition, The Space We Inhabit, featuring works by six established Maltese artists: Caesar Attard, Vince Briffa, Austin Camilleri, Joyce Camilleri, Anton Grech and Pierre Portelli.
The exhibition, set to open on June 14, will include paintings, sculpture, video and sound-based work.
Minister for National Heritage and the Arts Owen Bonnici announced the exhibition together with MICAS artistic director Edith Devaney.
“This exhibition marks a significant milestone for Maltese contemporary art. Our artists’ oeuvre is itself at an international level, and our country has always nurtured the dream of having such a space as MICAS to exhibit both international and Maltese work – it was a challenge to deliver this project but also to combine this ambition of attracting international artists to Malta while giving our artists an international platform. I am delighted that MICAS is committed to celebrating Maltese art in its highest form and bringing it to a wider international stage,” Bonnici said.
MICAS artistic director Edith Devaney said the six artists featured in The Space We Inhabit all have established far-reaching reputations.
“Malta has been home to a thriving arts and culture scene for many decades, with its modern development gaining momentum after independence in 1964. Evolving towards modernism, Maltese artists have frequently trained in European centres, engaging with global themes while maintaining connections to the island’s unique cultural heritage. And for many, this has led to recognition and opportunities well beyond Malta.”
Dach of the six artists will respond to the them of space – both real and imagined – in different ways, with some evoking a sense of a landscape and others taking a more conceptual view on the idea of space, and by extension, place.
The exhibition will be held across all three main exhibition floors of the museum.
“It is always a cause for celebration here at MICAS to put Maltese artists of excellence at the forefront,” MICAS executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat said.
“All artists will be represented by numerous works, many of which have been produced and adapted specifically for this exhibition. We are honoured that these leading contemporary artists have taken up this challenge, and we encourage the Maltese public to enjoy this national space, and cast their eyes on the best Maltese contemporary art has to offer.”
MICAS is open Tuesdays to Thursdays and Sundays from 10am to 6pm; and Fridays and Saturdays from 10am to 8pm. It is closed on Mondays.
Entrance fee to exhibitions is €10 with concessions. Access to outdoor spaces, sculpture displays and the shop is free.
About the artists
Caesar Attard
Caesar Attard (b. 1946) studied at the Malta School of Art 1966-1973 and has remained consistently active in the local art scene, participating in exhibitions in Malta and abroad and as member of local art groups Spectrum ’67, Vision ’74, and Atelier ’56. Attard was teacher of Art from 1970 to 1995 and lecturer in Visual Art Practice and History of Art in the Art Department at the Junior College of the University of Malta from 1995 to 2011.
In addition to painting, Attard experimented since the 1970s in non-traditional art-forms such as participatory art and installations.
In addition to showing in a number of group exhibitions in Malta and Europe, Attard has had a number of solo exhibitions: Drawings, at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, in 1980; Fear and Risk, Catholic Institute, Floriana, 1987; Life and Passion in 1992 and Paintings and Drawings in 1994, both at The New Gallery, The National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta; the exhibition “→”, at the National Museum of Fine Art, Valletta in 2007; the Caesar Attard: a Retrospective Exhibition at the Bank of Valletta Headquarters, St. Venera, 2007; H-ardcore, a multimedia installation and exhibition at St. James Cavalier, Centre for Creativity, Valletta, 2013, and this year in Valletta Contemporary.
Vince Briffa
Vince Briffa is a multimedia artist, curator and researcher. Having studied drawing and painting as well as media art, his concepts draw from contemporary artistic and aesthetic fields, integrating approaches and concerns from the areas of fine art, sociology, advertising, film studies, literature and philosophy.
Over the past forty years, Briffa’s work has been exhibited in some of the world’s most prestigious museums and galleries including the Malta Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale in 1999 and 2019; the Pierides Museum, Cyprus; the Palais des Nations, Switzerland; the Museum of Modern Art, Liechtenstein; the Casoria Museum, Naples; Villa Manin Contemporary Art, Italy; MAC, Argentina; Palais Liechtenstein, Austria; The Museum of Fine Arts, Romania and the Museum of Modern Art, Israel.
Austin Camilleri
Austin Camilleri (b. 1972) works simultaneously and non-hierarchically in installation, painting, drawing, video and sculpture. Drawing mainly on Western art history, popular culture and power image traditions, he explores the tension between the material and the digital, the personal and public, by layering techniques and modalities.
Camilleri was born into a family of artists. He studied at the University of Malta and at the Accademia Pietro Vannucci in Perugia, after being awarded a four-year scholarship in 1991. He is the founder of 356, founding member of stART, Fundazzjoni Klula, and is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Built Environment, University of Malta.
He has exhibited widely, including in the Venice Biennale, Ostrale Biennale in Dresden, the Mediterranean Biennale in Tunis, ArtRaker Biennale in Valletta, Biennale for Young Artists in Rome and in Art Knows No Frontiers in Trier.
Joyce Camilleri
Joyce Camilleri (b.1980) is a Malta-based artist and a member of the Department of Visual Arts within the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta and the founder of Jo Borg Gallery, a forum supporting emerging, mid-career and established artists.
Camilleri’s practice is deeply rooted in drawing and printmaking, which informs her painting, and she has pursued extensive training in art pedagogy, theory and practice in Malta and abroad. She holds an MEd artist teacher degree from the University of West Scotland (2017), a Diploma in Fine Art Printmaking from the Malta School of Art (2008), and a BEd (Hons) in Art from the University of Malta (2002).
Over the years Camilleri has exhibited in local solo and collective shows, international academic exhibitions and graphic art shows across Europe, including the 10th and 11th International Triennale of Graphic Art (2021/4, Bitola), and the first in a series of artistic residencies hosted by the Malta National Community-Art Museum (MUŻA) in 2021.
Anton Grech
Anton Grech (b.1965) studied at the Malta School of Art, at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, Italy and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.
Grech was a member of the artistic academic staff at the Kunstakademie andcollaborated with several leading German artists. Grech has been teaching at the Malta School of Art and at the University of Malta. He is Head of the Department for Visual Arts within the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta. Grech is founding member of the artists’ groups stART and WARTI.
Grech has exhibited in Malta and internationally. Personal exhibitions include: Argos, a public sculpture for the Cottonera Waterfront (2008); Anton Grech, Drawings, National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta (2005-2006); Anton Grech, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin, Germany; Anton Grech, Pittura, Vilhena Palace, Mdina (2001) and Anton Grech, Malerei, Ballhaus, Düsseldorf (1999).
Grech represented Malta in Dialogue with Emperor Qin’s Warriors, an international sculpture exhibition in collaboration with Qu Art Brussels and Inspiring Culture, Brussels with exhibitions in Xian, National Museum, China (2011/12) and several subsequent venues in China and Europe.
Grech has curated exhibitions of emerging Maltese artists including Defying Complacency, photographic exhibition, Malta Design Week (2014); I Draw, Bank of Valletta (2012); OUTOFPRINT, Auberge d’Italie, Valletta (2007).
Pierre Portelli
Pierre Portelli (b. 1961) works mainly in installation, sculpture, video and mixed media art. His work investigates processes of change, interaction and the temporary meeting of social worlds through sculpture, site-specific work, language and sometimes playful tongue-in-cheek undertones.
He studied at the Swindon School of Art and Design in the UK and is a founding member of START, a Maltese contemporary art group, and a collaborator of The Little Constellations, a network for contemporary art. In 2003 he collaborated with Love Difference and Michelangelo Pistoletto at the 50th Venice Biennale. He is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta and is currently the Council President of the Malta School of Art.
Pierre Portelli has exhibited in national and international institutions such as the Ostrale Biennale, Dresden; the Bozar and the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium, the Malta Maritime Museum and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Malta, among many other venues.
Pierre Portelli has originated cross-disciplinary research-based projects with music composers and performers, choreographers, actors, authors and is a frequent collaborator in theatre productions. He is the co-curator and co-researcher of the ongoing REL•INK Indelible Narratives project initiated in 2016, that researches and explores the tattoo history and narratives of Malta and the links with other Mediterranean port cities.
This article was provided by MICAS.
