Agius ³, an art exhibition by Mario, Victor and Charlene Agius is a collection which includes recent sculptures by Mario Agius mainly in olive wood and also a selection of contemporary works made in the last five years by Victor and Charlene Agius.

The three artists, father Mario and his children, Victor and Charlene, draw their inspiration from the nature that adorns our beautiful islands and our identity, bearing traces of rituals rooted since prehistoric times. Artworks shown in this collection include sculptures, drawings, paintings and documentation of installations in various media.

According to Professor Kenneth Wain, the Agius family are offering a collective exhibition which is quite unique, a father and his two children coming together to showcase their art. Mario, the father and, evidently, a guiding influence on the artistic bent of his children, is a sculptor with several works which show the great majority of them sculpted from the wood of trees, olive wood in particular.

Victor has also made a name for himself as an artist using various materials in his abstractions but the sculptor is always lurking within, and he extended his sculptural range and medium by working in ceramics and other media. These skills, dimensions and sensitivity to different media and materials are brought together in his most recent work which applies itself to different genres, including installation and performance art.

Charlene's works on show are for the most part seascapes; the sea being a subject that, because of its volatile nature, lends itself to an infinity of interpretations and representations. In Charlene's case these range from the conventional to the more experimental semi-abstract and show a certain consistency in style and coloration.

Agius³ will run at the Exhibition Hall, Ministry for Gozo, St Francis Square, Victoria, Gozo until 25 September. Opening hours: Mondays to Fridays 8.15am to 12.45pm; Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays 9.30am to 12.30pm.

For this exhibition a fully illustrated catalogue with the design and photography by Daniel Cilia was published.

Agius³ is hosted by the Ministry for Gozo and supported by Bank of Valletta, Xaghra Local Council, Qbajjar Restaurant, J. Portelli Projects and Gozo Pools.

For more information visit www.marioagius.com or phone on 9947 2831, 7930 6618

Mario Agius

Mario Agius (b. 1956) has manifested a fond inclination to sculpture and design from his early years. He began his artistic studies under the late Mons. Michelangelo Apap and furthered his studies in wood sculpture under artist Anton Agius (1933-2008). The artist has a number of sculptures in private collections both locally and abroad including England, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. His finest wood sculptures adorn churches all around the Maltese islands.

Fr Tony Sciberras, the ex-rector of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Gozo during the opening of Vitae (2015)  affirmed that "within the art of Mario Agius, the creation of the new, the other - from that which is fragile, from materials lacking form and beauty - seems to be the central theme: the creation of the human figure from scattered rocks or formless branches; the formation of a new life in a woman's fragile womb; the new life that emerges from that which has been broken, deprived of all human dignity and crucified. Mario Agius sees life even where you and I see only death".

Victor Agius

Born in 1982 in Gozo, Victor Agius as a child became acquainted with sculptural work thanks to his father Mario Agius. His practice consists of performance, installation, sculpture and painting. At its core, it concerns his work with formless matter. Agius examines the formless matter proper to his own experience of the environment - either randomly or carefully selected sites with their distinctive ecological and archaeological features - which all finds its roots in the earth or soil-derived organic materials (raw clay, for instance, beside natural pigments, oils and acrylics). This has allowed him to produce a body of work through which to reflect upon the subject of human existence in general and the limits of his own existence in particular.

Charlene Agius

Since a young age, Charlene Agius (1987) has been fascinated by art. In 2009 she graduated as a teacher of Art and Geography from the University of Malta. Presently she is teaching Art in the Gozo College. She attended Art lessons under the tuition of Harry Alden where she studied design and painting. She works mainly in acrylics while she also experiments with other materials. A recurring theme in her work is the sea and its fluid and agitated nature. Her painting is often imbued with a semi-abstract and abstract language.