I am beyond excited to be curating my first exhibition for Fabio Borg, and his first solo, at our little Kamra ta' Fuq in Mqabba.

I am more excited than usual, for a very valid reason, and that's because my invitation to exhibit sparked the creation of an entirely new body of work, in quite a different style, both style-wise and medium-wise.

I have known Fabio and his work for quite some time now and we already collaborated in a couple of collective exhibitions over the years, including one for the Malta Community Chest Fund, titled But I see beauty, where he participated with quite a daring piece I must say, and happy to add that it was a successful gamble.

In early 2023, Fabio paid a visit to us at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, and I was treated to an exciting and mesmerising morning. During our conversation, he shared intriguing details from his experience in Rome, where he held a solo exhibition titled Radici. The exhibition took place at Galleria Vittoria, located along the renowned Via Margutta - a name that resonates with art aficionados familiar with the vibrant art scene in Rome.

We were mutually hoping for a collaboration soon, but our little room is always pretty full. But sometimes the planets, stars and suns do align and we had a cancellation (also for a good reason for the other artist), and even though the time was rather short, top of my wishlist was Fabio and I decided to try my luck.

Needless to say, he was excited about the invitation, but he needed to assess if it was a realistic timeframe to produce the high quality of work that he is renowned for. Two days later, he got in touch and very enthusiastically he mentioned that he started an experiment following the invitation euphoria, and he felt he managed to achieve something new, exciting, and what we can consider, a step forward in the evolution of his style and his artistic journey.

The works are so good that I had a really hard time choosing the works. Of course, I only had to choose because of the limitation of the exhibition space. Fabio is mostly renowned for his very atmospheric landscapes and treescapes. In Moodscapes, we see something different. We are surrounded by works executed in what I feel can be described as abstract expressionism.

He's using acrylic, oil pastel and pencil on paper. Yes, his experiment involved using paper and one of the reasons why he changed from his usual canvas is necessity. As mentioned earlier, time was crucial and at home, he had no fresh canvas available, but instead he had some nice quality paper at hand. What also makes these works exciting, is that the whole body of work was executed in a very short time, which gives a very balanced result of a series of works all emanating a very cohesive style.

We are presented with an array of works bursting with emotions in what I feel are very harmonious colours and stronger emotions are expressed with the use of black lines, at times almost angry, but the final result is that of a serene mood, perfectly balanced between the black lines and the chosen palettes. Those familiar with Borg's work will feel the ghost of landscapes past embedded in these works. In fact, in some of the works, there are hints of some imaginary places, which only vaguely exist in the artist's imagination. We can feel that Borg is letting his memories unconsciously take over and flow without any constraints into these Moodscapes.

The titles play an important role for Fabio and some of them are truly poetic. Both of us are very much in agreement that an artwork should have a title, just like a baby should have a name. His titles come mostly after the painting is ready. In fact, sometimes it takes him days of pondering and revisiting the painting to decide on the title, based on the felt emotion upon experiencing the artwork.

As always I always have that one favorite artwork - though this time I was torn between three. My daughter solved my dilemma as she insisted that I must write that OUR favourite is Nature loves courage, a composition executed entirely in red, a calm fury - if that's even possible - small in size; an enfant terrible. Yes I am proud to say, she really has a good eye.

Fabio has a couple of favourites as well. Where everything seems fine is the first work of such a big size in this series and for him marks quite an achievement. One can spot what seems to be a row of crooked dark doorways - if one really tries to find a landscape - executed in a palette of blues and peaches. His other is Yellow is the true colour of spring, which is also the exhibition's hero image, used on the poster. Upon zooming and analysing this image, while working on the poster design, I realized how incredibly beautiful and harmonious the yellows, greens and purples can be.

Four of the largest works are executed on canvas, the largest of all, Intimus sensibus captures maybe a grey sky, over a red/green/ochre meadow or maybe not - it's all up to the viewer.

Inevitable battles inside us is a perfect abstract representation of peace and turmoil and peace and then turmoil. Meet me where the wild things grow is predominantly executed in a pinkish hue, all surrounding a circular void towards the bottom part of the composition. This circular void is present in other works in the series, namely Reminiscent, Mood scape II, Somewhere safe and even more prominent in Ernest view. It's up to one's interpretation to give a sense to this void.

What better way than a short trip down memory lane to conclude this write-up?

Fabio started his artistic journey over 25 years ago. He studied under Anthony Calleja. He spent several years in Italy, where he was inspired by various Italian artists. Further influence came from Gabriel Caruana who backed the artist's career. Through Caruana's encouragement, Borg launched his first solo exhibition at The Mill in 1999, after which he exhibited widely both in Malta and abroad.

The exhibition Moodscapes by Fabio Borg is on until 4 February at il-Kamra ta' Fuq in Mqabba. It is curated by Melanie Erixon. For more information follow il-Kamra ta' Fuq on social media.