A series of intricate ink drawings by Glenn Ellul is on display for the last couple of days at Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq in Mqabba.
The exhibition’s title, Architopia, suggests an invented architectural ideal of a constructed “place” suspended somewhere between utopia, fantasy, and psychological space, while Echoes of Elsewhere introduces a sense of distance, nostalgia and reverberation, of spaces that are not entirely fictional, but rather fragments of memories from another lifetime.
Drawing from a deeply personal archive of visual memories shaped by local architecture and travels across Europe, Asia and South America, Ellul constructs impossible cities, suspended ruins, sacred interiors and speculative monuments that appear both ancient and futuristic.
Much like the imagined urban landscapes in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, these works are less depictions of actual places and more meditations on how space can hold thought, memory, emotion and desire. Echoes of Giovanni Battista Piranesi emerge in the monumental complexity of the spaces. At the same time, the intricate spatial paradoxes recall the impossible architectures of M. C. Escher and Richard England’s Mythopoli series.
Executed painstakingly by hand in ink, line by line and without mechanical aid, the drawings emerge through repetition, accumulation and intense concentration.
For Ellul, architecture becomes a means of translating internal complexity into structured spatial systems. His works invite viewers not to search for fixed meanings, but to enter dense visual environments that gradually reveal themselves the longer one lingers within them. Within these solitary architectures, time and space become fluid, and the boundaries between the real and the imagined begin to dissolve.
About the artist
Glenn Ellul (b. 1991) is a self-taught artist whose fascination with the intricacies of local architecture, particularly monumental architecture, began from a very young age.
He graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in graphic design and interactive media and has since participated in numerous collective exhibitions and collaborative projects, while also contributing to the production of various interdisciplinary design ventures.
In November 2021, Ellul held his first solo exhibition, titled Structures of the Mind, which showcased his distinctive architectural visual language.
Over the years, he has developed a unique artistic style that combines architectural motifs with intricate ornamental language, articulated through an imaginative and highly meticulous approach using ink on paper.
His second solo exhibition, Architopia: Echoes of Elsewhere, comes to a close on Sunday. For opening hours, visit Il-Kamra ta’ Fuq Facebook page.
