Maltese artist Patrick Dalli is staging his work within an evocative space – the grand, solemn halls of Palazzo Fodri in Cremona, Italy.
Known to many for his nude paintings, Dalli’s Within the Walls represents a confident progression in his artistic expression, as it presents a selection of his recent works thoughtfully juxtaposed with some of his personal favourite paintings, including landscapes.
Curated by Pietro Quattriglia Venneri, the works reveal a single continuous line, generating a striking new presence and atmosphere.
This effect is further enriched by the character of the space and its dialogue with the distinctive setting of the imposing palazzo. Within these historic walls, the works assume a renewed luminosity and resonance.
The particularity of Dalli’s artwork has been noted by various critics and curators; however, one of the most pertinent voices to reflect on his work is Italian curator and renowned art historian Vittorio Sgarbi.
Writing about a recent major exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Sgarbi argued that Dalli should not be viewed as a painter of sensuality, but rather as a chronicler of pure existence. In Dalli’s world, nudity becomes a form of revelation, while clothing operates as a mask or a kind of disguise or layering of “history, custom and fiction”,
Dalli’s brush strips away the theatre of appearances to reveal what is essential.
“Dalli’s subjects, often closed within their own solitude, invite a slow and attentive gaze”
Sgarbi observes how the artist regards his subjects “without mercy and without indulgence,” establishing a distant yet direct dialogue that captures the raw, disarmed reality of the human condition.
His figures, often seated in quiet domestic settings on stools or sofas, neither provoke nor perform. Instead, they wait; they look at us who look at them, without fear of judgement. This reflection also reveals the artist’s concern and his artistic values.
This understanding is further reinforced by the reflections of curator Venneri, whose entry for this exhibition situates Dalli’s practice within the broader cultural condition of Malta. Venneri argues that the island embodies a dense concentration of historical and artistic influences that continue to inform its artists.
In this light, Dalli’s work emerges from a context shaped by a powerful cultural legacy, one indelibly marked by figures such as Caravaggio and other important key figures, while simultaneously articulating a visual language that negotiates between inherited tradition and a personal, evolving interpretation.
In this exposition, Dalli builds on a continuum, adding another layer where the stillness of the figures is both echoed and offset by the pulsating colours of stylised backgrounds: landscapes defined by distinctive shapes, forms and tones.
In many of the new works, his figures inhabit spaces that move between flatness and depth, resulting in compositions that convey both expressive precision and quiet tension.
While the human figure remains central, the Cremona exhibition highlights Dalli’s increasing synthesis of two different painterly approaches.
These new compositions can be read as painted collages, evoking an almost suggestive, surreal sensibility.
Dalli’s subjects, often closed within their own solitude, invite a slow and attentive gaze. They encourage the viewer to engage with the beauty of texture and the density of paint and the weight of the human body, which, at times, is set against animated fields of colour.
Ultimately, the Palazzo Fodri exhibition presents the human image in a freshly conceived setting, allowing it to occupy space with serene composure while asserting its inherent right to simply be.
In doing so, it offers the viewer a rare experience of authenticity amid a noisy, artificial world defined by tension and vulnerability.
Within the Walls comes to a close today.
