“When I was teaching at St Joseph Technical School in Paola – a school renowned for unmanageable, mischievous boys – I used to show students how to model clay and make ceramics during their break. One day the inspector walked in to find 60 boys quietly working, intent on creating objects in clay. He asked me to step outside the classroom to talk to me.”

“How do you keep 60 boys like that working quietly?” he asked.

“They are doing something they enjoy – creating art,” I replied.

As Gabriel Caruana was telling us this story in his studio, a young man walked in and said he wanted to buy ceramics or a drawing for a friend who likes Gabriel’s art. He thought he could look around and choose, but there were only five ceramics in the studio and all of them were already sold.

“What is the meaning of this piece?” the young man asked.

“There is no meaning, it is contemporary art,” Gabriel replied.

Gabriel Caruana, an octogenarian, is a pioneer of contemporary art in Malta. He says that art is a personal expression and does not have to have meaning. Having over 60 years experience in this field, Gabriel Caruana’s name is synonymous with ceramics – deep cobalt blue, vivid glossy red and worm like, elongated human figures are his motto and can be seen in a lot of his work. Although he also has art pieces in various other media such as drawings, wood, stone, glass and so on, it is ceramics that he is most famous for.

“Once the clay piece is created, I let it dry for 15 days. I like to go with nature and not hurry things. It takes a day to pack the kiln and a day to increase the temperature of the kiln slowly. The clay is then fired for 34 hours at around 950° C. You can make it faster but I like it to take its own time. If it is done too fast the objects inside the kiln can break.

“After the first firing called biscuit firing, I place the glaze, which is almost white, on the clay. I know exactly what colour the glaze will transform into once it is fired again.”

Gabriel uses different ceramic techniques when firing. However, he has developed and refined his own technique over the years. His art is very individualistic and original. “My art comes from inside me. The ideas will be in my head and I create one piece that is connected to the next piece. I spend all my waking hours thinking of new ideas to create new pieces and I dream about these ideas at night.”

Gabriel Caruana lives for art. He once told Richard England, “I could not live without art; it is the totality of all the meaning of my life.” When I asked Gabriel what art meant to him he looked straight into my eyes, smiled and without hesitation said – “Art is everything to me.”

Although Gabriel’s health is not what it once was, he still goes to his studio everyday and produces ceramics that as soon as they out of the kiln they are sold.

Gabriel studied, worked and held numerous exhibitions both in Malta and abroad. He has special ties with Faenza where his work is permanently exhibited in the Museo d’Arte Gaetano Ballardini. He studied in Perugia for a few months, worked in Detroit for a few weeks and refused a teaching post at Ohio University. He learned a lot from his many visits abroad and from artists he met there, but he says, “My roots are here. I think I did the right thing to stay in Malta.”

He was taught by George Borg. However, he dislikes the old way of teaching where students copy objects that are placed in front of them. Gabriel does not believe that learning art should be so rigid but believes in giving students space to develop their creativity. He does not follow any formula or school of thought. As Richard England aptly put it “He had, from the beginning, established the basic rule of following no rules.” Gabriel was also taught and worked with Emvin Cremona and to a lesser extent by Vincent Apap.

However, Gabriel’s best learning experience were the invaluable numerous hours he spent with Victor Pasmore who moved to Malta with his wife in 1966, as he wanted to have a home and studio in the Mediterranean. According to Gabriel Caruana, Victor Pasmore chose Malta after seeing Gabriel’s work exhibited in England.

Gabriel Caruana together with his wife Maryrose, who is also an artist, are directors of the art gallery at il-Mithna ta’ Ganu in Naxxar Road, Birkirkara which was built by Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena in 1724. The contemporary sculptures, paintings and ceramics exhibited there blend in with the historic limestone walls of the mill.

The artists currently exhibiting in this gallery are Richard England, Gastone Primon, Angela Salafia, Carla Maya, Antoine Paul Camilleri, Louis Qasha, Jeremy Ellul Casapinta, Mario Sammut, Emma Wright, Mario Tossoni, Manuel Caruana, Sandra Attard, Pia Magro and Richard Saliba.

The gallery is a meeting place for artists and anyone who wants to exhibit contemporary art there can do so. It is also a place visited by foreign students and where teachers from local schools take their students to view the art exhibited.

Gabriel Caruana’s contribution to art in Malta was by encouraging and helping a lot of artists and by creating original art. He does not create art to please or to make much money, but creates art because it is his life and he cannot live without it.