Claire Farrugia has been announced as the winner of the painting and drawing discipline category of MArteLive Europe competition. Farrugia is the only Maltese participant to have been selected for this competition.

MArte Live Europe is a contest-festival supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. This event brings together artists from 16 different artistic disciplines, including painting and drawing, dance, theatre, and sculpture, amongst others, and provides the participants with the opportunity to showcase their talent, win prizes and network with fellow artists. The contest consisted of a number of selection processes, starting with online auditions, followed by a semi-final show in Poland and the final which was held in Rome. By winning the semi-final show in Poland, Farrugia also got the opportunity to participate in "Art in Progress" Cagliari, an artistic residency organised by Impatto Teatro, where eight other artists from different disciplines, such as theatre, sculpture and music, came together to create an immersive work.

During the semi-final and final shows, Farrugia painted live using techniques she developed during her M.A research under the supervision of Professor Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci at the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta. The works created by Farrugia during the MArte Live semi-final and final were self-portraits. Farrugia creates her works via numerous layers. She starts off with a sketch and then starts building up the work whilst also peeling away and exposing older layers.

Through her technique and works, Farrugia seeks to experiment as well as deal with and challenge the notion of truth, particularly in relation to appearances to how one presents oneself on social media. In her work, Farrugia also assess the public's current attitude of disinterest in truth and shows how this is reflected in the portrayal of one's own appearance.

For more information visit https://contest.martelive.eu/