A temporary exhibition focusing on the connection between word and image is being presented by the Malta Community of Illustrators (MCOI) in collaboration with Kotba Calleja, as part of the events taking place around the Malta Book Festival 2025.
Estri brings together illustrators and poets in a creative exchange that highlights process, experimentation and collaboration. It features a collection of hand-crafted sketchbooks by Kotba Calleja, with each of the participating 18 illustrators and artists responding visually to selected works of contemporary Maltese poets.
The participating illustrators were invited to work exclusively on paper, using these sketchbooks as spaces for ideas, drawings and visual experiments.
The main aim of the project is to show the creative process behind illustration; how artists think through drawing, explore visual responses and allow ideas to develop on page.
In total, 17 sketchbooks will be on display. Each one offers a personal and experimental interpretation of selected Maltese poems. Visitors will be able to handle or flick through the original sketchbooks directly, but are advised to do so with care, as they are delicate.
Alongside the exhibition, a book titled Estri will be launched during the event. The publication includes a curated selection of pages from the participating sketchbooks, offering readers a closer look at the work on display.
The participating artists
This project marks the first collaboration between Kotba Calleja and MCOI. Both organisations felt this initiative was an important way to bring together two creative communities that rarely intersect: illustrators and poets.
In addition to producing the sketchbooks, Kotba Calleja also curated the literary component and invited Annalise Ebejer, Caldon Mercieca, Clare Azzopardi, Claudia Gauci, Giulia Privitelli, Jake Buttigieg, Kenneth Scicluna, Leanne Ellul, Luke J. Buhagiar, Maria Grech Ganado and Nicole Zammit to take part.
MCOI coordinated the artistic side of the project, inviting a range of illustrators from different backgrounds and styles. These are Adrian Gauci, Alexine Sammut, Amy Bonnici, Celia Borg Cardona, Daniela Attard, Debbie Caruana Dingli, Fran Balzan, Fabrizio Ellul, Jade Zammit, Kyle Xuereb Cunningham, Marietta Mifsud, Matt Stroud, Matthew Robert Shirfield, Matthew Schembri, Miriam Galea, Noura Abdelhafidh, Stephen Micallef and Svetlana Golovacheva.
For MCOI, the project highlights illustration as a serious and evolving artistic discipline that extends beyond commercial work.
For Kotba Calleja, it reinforces the value of the handmade book as an artistic, cultural object, rather than simply a functional one.
Estri is being held at the atelier of the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre in Ta’ Qali, tomorrow from 5 to 9pm. The Malta Book Festival opens at the MFCC on Wednesday and runs until Sunday. For the full programme, visit ktieb.org.mt.
