Artist Mark Sagona is holding his ninth personal exhibition of paintings at Il-Ħaġar | Heart of Gozo Museum in Victoria, Gozo until 19 July.
The exhibition, entitled Inner Impulses: Paintings 2014-2015 is being organized as part of the 18th edition of the Victoria International Arts Festival which has kicked off on the 10th June. The festival is one of Malta's most important events in the yearly cultural calendar.
The new collection consists of 25 abstract works produced in the last few months which result from the artist's renewed artistic experimentation and research. They continue to develop ideas he had embarked upon in previous solo shows, such as the important abstracts exhibited at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta in 2004 and 2008 respectively.
This exhibition is significant in the artist's development for several reasons. It is Sagona's first personal show since the award of his pioneering Art History Ph.D. in 2014, a benchmark in his artistic and academic career. This is the first exhibition being held in his native Gozo since 2006, and is also the first exposition by the artist since his last personal show in Paris in 2010-2011. This marks a return for Mark Sagona, who is a visiting lecturer in the Department of History of Art, Faculty of Arts of the University of Malta, and his new collection shows a synthesis of his bold landscapes and energy seen in his previous abstracts. These compositions are recent mutations of a continuous inner, spiritual impulse which is charged with the magic of light, the sensuality of colour and the stability of form.
The exhibition is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue with a short study by Sagona's fellow University colleague Professor Conrad Thake and photography by Daniel Cilia. The publication has been made possible through the generous support MSVLife, Michael Grech Financial Investment Services, Compass Insurance Group and Vini e Capricci, who are the main sponsors of the exhibition.
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