This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of Picasso’s most famous paintings, Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, considered as a milestone of modern art. This much discussed masterpiece has been used as the point of departure for a number of contemporary works of art to be exhibited soon at the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, in an exhibition titled Picasso’s Laboratory.

The exhibition is being held as the annual closing project of the B. Ed (Hons) Art course. Eight university fourth year art students – Katia Borg Sant, Ian Coleiro, Alexia Mercieca, Adrian Scicluna, Carmen Sultana, Rachel Theuma, Victoria Vella and Fiorella Zammit – will be exhibiting works in various media. Twelve MA Book Art students from the well-known Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, have also been invited to take part in this exhibition.

Some well known Maltese artists who lecture at the University of Malta, including Caesar Attard, Ruth Bianco, Isabelle Borg with Graham Cooper, Vince Briffa, Savio Deguara, Patrick Fenech, Pierre Portelli, Raphael Vella (who is also the curator) and Les Bicknell (an artist and lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts in London) will also be exhibiting their works parallel to those of the students in an exhibition on the same theme titled The Philosophical Brothel. World-famous contemporary Swedish artists FA+ (Ingrid Falk and Gustavo Aguerre) will also be participating.

The exhibition Picasso’s Laboratory will be open between 19 May and 17 June.

FA+ will be showing images and discussing their work during a public talk to be held in the Music Hall at St James Cavalier on Monday 21 May at 7pm. The public is invited to attend, entrance is free.