A joint exhibition by Julie Apap and Ebba von Fersen Balzan, entitled Creation, which is being held at the beautiful Gallery G in Lija, promises to be both interesting and stimulating. Supported by Attard & Co (Foodstuffs) Ltd – Namaqua Wines, Malta Today, Malta Now, Malta International Airport and Bank of Valletta, the two exhibiting artists use very different media, but both are concerned with nature and history.

Julie Apap works in clay (and porcelain), one of the oldest and most temperamental media to work with. She has come to respect and liaise with it, producing elegant and inspiring work. Her deep interest in the neolithic temples and the surrounding Maltese landscape has shaped and influenced her ceramics, giving her works texture and colour and provoking thoughts. She is also well-known for her wheel-thrown, functional ceramics.

Ebba von Fersen Balzan is a versatile painter, known for her work showing her deep involvement and concern for the Maltese temples as well as her lively jazz paintings, executed during the yearly jazz festival.

In this exhibition, her theme has broadened to encompass life and natural history, with many references to Maltese prehistory but also with reference to Brittany. And nudes have been introduced, giving the work a deeper, more humane sensibility.

Ebba has based her paintings largely on her lino prints which are collaged, almost woven, into the picture, producing many-layered enigmatic and mysterious images, or fresh and crisp thoughts about nature and the world at large.

Julie introduces new wall pieces, some of which are like paintings – appearing to materialise from the wall, and others collaged on different backgrounds.

Her sculptural figures emerge from torn pieces of patterned clay, to assume a life of their own.

Both artists express their fascination for prehistory and the surrounding Maltese landscape in their own media. However, their interest in patterns and texture is evident in both artists work.

This exhibition will be open to the public until Saturday, 27 May. Gallery G’s exhibition halls and gallery shop (No. 4, Sir Ugo Mifsud Street, Lija) are open to the public between 9am – 5pm on weekdays and 9.30am and 12:30pm on Saturdays.