Christopher Saliba’s next exhibition titled Of Time and Timelessness, will be held at St James Cavalier between 27 October and 3 December. This new collection of abstract paintings on canvas is a personal interpretation of the way memories and emotions are evoked by light, space, texture and colours.

After spending four years in Italy, where he completed successfully a scholarship in art at the Accademia di Belle Arti “Pietro Vannucci”, in Perugia, Christopher Saliba specialised in abstract art. What Saliba always tries to reveal through his art is the spiritual nature of the human being as well as the primordial link between mankind and the natural environment.

In his new exhibition, Saliba’s interest is in time and memories, and he tries to capture it in his paintings. The artist usually starts an abstract painting with a definite concept, such as the idea that memory can be represented in the form of superimposed layers. “Life is made of different memories,” explained the painter, “and the different layers of colours in my paintings symbolise these various memories.” The artist knows that memory is unpredictable. It comes in flashes of colour and sound, some remnants of feelings, and it comes in layers. Re-creating the passage of time, Saliba lays down layers on his canvasses for the viewer to discover. Saliba describes the levels of complexity behind his rich surfaces: “I paint energy and essence and my work is about time. I interpret memory by fragmenting my canvas into geometrical shapes, each of which is treated as an individual experience or memory in time.” The artist totally commits himself to the process of painting: “I rub, scrape, etch and razor the painted surface to expose layers. In doing so, the actual record of the painting is revealed.”

Light really emanates from his paintings. The artist also plays with the contrast between dark and light in order to symbolise the flash of memories through rays of light. “Light is a sort of revelation,” said Saliba and it really seems that you can learn something new from his works of art. The more you look at Saliba’s paintings, the more you can pierce the darkness of life. Time is one of the biggest mysteries of life. Time is abstract but it rules human destiny. Time shapes life, gives it a sense. And that is what you can perceive in Saliba’s paintings.

Every so often, we think that we control time and it seems to be comprehensible; but at other times it is beyond human control. Saliba tries to describe this balance between time and timelessness, between structured time and accidental events. His paintings can be viewed as being either structurally built, or intuitive, spontaneous and impulsive. “There is the idea of accident,” explained Saliba, “the balance between the order and unpredicted facts.” Accidental and unintended happenings throughout the working process reflect the fact that the passage of memory is not simply chronological, linear or rational.

Saliba’s colour contrasts and rich textural intensity lend his paintings a sense of multi-dimensionality, depth and coherent movement. Definitely, the colour red dominates in most of his paintings. It vibrates outrageously on the treated surfaces of his canvas. The layering technique of colour, applied with a knife, enhances the quality of light that shapes the topographic elements of the paintings. The artist creates his dynamic and rhythmical works in acrylics, oils and mixed media on canvas that exhibit both bold and subtle qualities.

Saliba’s work is full of emotions. Each painting has its own history, its own secret to reveal. Colours and texture are undoubtedly the central force of the artist’s creative process, demonstrating the different dimensions of the human being. The different textures of his paintings represent both the body and the soul of humankind, its mind and its matter. “I am visually inspired by time-worn surfaces that recount our history and my individual story,” explained the artist. His paintings really seem to live, taking us on a journey through the ages and memories that persist. Everyone can find a part of oneself in Saliba’s work that perhaps spells out the secret of life.

Christopher Saliba’s exhibition promises viewers moments of contemplation and a veritable travel through time.