This is a collaborative exhibition bringing together three artists, each known for their unique styles. Together Christopher Saliba, Marisa Attard and Henry Falzon display a variety of vibrant colours and perspectives with a good dose of detail and humour.
The theme of Land & Sea comes about through the appreciation of different scenes and landscapes that surround us as well as the people within those spaces.
The exhibition will be on from 14 to 26 April at Gallery 23 in Balzan. Opening hours are on Wednesdays from 6.3o to 8pm and Sundays from 11am to 12.30pm.
Christopher Saliba
The push and pull between representation and abstraction is evident in Christopher Saliba's interpretation of the local landscape genre. His expressionist paintings, though innovative, never lose touch with their source in nature. The vibrant and bold colours that give a distinctive character to his works stand out as carefully adjusted tonal modulations and complex layers of paint. Saliba's paintings suggest rather than describe landscape components and perspectives. Saliba prefers to be bold in scale and experimental with materials that allow him to create works that are rich in texture and gestural application of brushwork. The forms of natural and man-made structures materialise through a spatial organisation of colour within which red dominates and gives the apparent idyllic and timeless landscapes a sense of drama and urgency. What finally emerges is a radiant and evocative body of work, fuelled by an inner light that emanates a profound intensity.
Marisa Attard
Sprawled on beaches, strolling along, defying gravity and floating up and away many of Marisa Attard's quirky characters can be found between land and sea, occupying and inhabiting the space around them. Attard is a people-watcher and likes to focus more on people than landscapes. In fact her landscapes tend to be abstracted, minimalistic or completely omitted. The medium used is pen, ink, watercolour or acrylic and collage. Found objects, lacy bits, patterned paper and textured skies are used to great effect inviting the viewer to come up close to the painting for a proper look.
Attard prefers her art to be open to interpretation. She feels that art is personal and that people can draw on their own experiences when viewing her work. Some of her paintings might have underlying hidden messages or meanings, some others are just what they seem - people looking straight at the viewer or off at a distance just being.
Henry Falzon
Henry Falzon is known for his pastel and oil-on-canvas landscapes, often depicting overhead views of captured moments. His work is in constant evolution and decisively unique. He has a special calling for the sea and figures populate and enforce moments that deserve capturing.
Falzon started his artistic journey in the early 90s with Black & White photography while in his late teens. Shooting film was Henry's way of exploring and projecting the way he perceives life and the things around him. His preoccupation has been cantered around capturing moments and presenting them in a way to make some form of statement or impression. Often, angles of familiar views are presented in unusual ways, a recurring challenge for Falzon.
Being self-thought and starting from rather unorthodox paths to art, allows Falzon a degree of mental freedom and uninhibited approaches. His art has no rules or conventions, only enthusiasm to create art as a vehicle to get his story across. The foundations of photography remain to this day the cornerstone of Henry's work, but only as a departure point. Probably this is due to Henry's dissatisfaction that photography is often too close to life and feels the need to push his voice beyond the very real, into a dream-like quality.
The curiosity towards life is the engine that drives Falzon. Each passing year throws new experiences in life and makes life, in Falzon's view, impossible to be left unexplored and unmanifested. This necessity fuels more exploration and new ways of expression.
https://gallery23malta.com/exhibition-artworks