It reopens next week, after an abruptly induced pause caused by the pandemic lockdown. The paintings have waited impatiently on the gallery walls since, and are prepared to show off their bursts of colour once again. Lucio Dubini's Memories from Mars is ready to cajole us back to carefree pre-pandemic times with open arms.

There is a place somewhere in our minds where we run off to dream, hide or play, whichever is more required for personal peace of mind. Artists tend to retire to this “safe” place more often than most, and it is there that they find inspiration, or solace, or relief, from whatever it is that weighs them down or troubles them.

I cannot but think and consider this show from such a perspective. This is a show of paintings by neo-artist Lucio Dubini, his first-ever solo to date. Dubini is a born and bred Italian who moved from northern Italy to spend 10 years working and living in Paris, before moving to Malta, where he spent the past six years. Thus his decision to launch his art on Malta, also due to the huge inspiration he found here.

The step to move to Malta was a huge change to be sure, but one which seems to have contributed to his artistic birthing. "When I relocated from Paris to Malta, I was not just changing my address; I was also changing my occupation and my lifestyle along with it. My business-oriented profession allowed me the luxury of finding myself, discovering my artistic leanings and working on them with continuity."

Inspired by his grandfather, who was a sculptor, Dubini found that on Malta, he could afford to dedicate time, that seemingly elusive quality in today’s life, to his art. It was time, coupled with the Maltese light and the island’s colours that prompted his imagination to bloom.

The first painting from this collection of abstracts was born in the latter months of 2019, and is entitled Cosmic Hug. It serves as the basis of the show. "I took myself back to the memory of my childhood dreams of flying out to space and discovering mysterious worlds out there. I worked on the sensations I recalled of that experience, the carefree sensations, and the adventure of it all." Indeed, the paintings all have a happy child-like quality, simplistic to a point, but clearly produced out of a highly evolved sense of colour and composition. In fact, the works manage to instil a sense of fun, coupled by peace and balance, since they efficiently release a high sense of visual harmony.

Mostly self-taught, Dubini relies on luminosity and movement to create impact on his canvases. The Acrobatic Search for the Man that became a Parrot and then a Fish is the title of a work that says it all, and one can already conjecture something fascinating from the title itself. Then there is the unguarded humour characterising some of the paintings, such as the work titled Big Nose Contest. I keep thinking these would make stupendous titles for a series of fantastic children’s story books. And why not? These paintings invite us to put on pink-tinted shades, grab a bucket and spade, suck on ice lollies and play at being pirates on the seas. We may even be tempted to fly off to Mars while we’re at it. Whether we can still proceed to do that or not, depends on our frame of mind.

The artist will be in attendance and available to meet visitors at the galleries throughout the duration of the exhibition.