With great pleasure, next at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, we will be hosting the solo exhibition by Liliana Fleri Soler, titled Fuq, fil-Kamra, curated by yours truly.

I met the lovely Liliana and her art through our mutual friend JP Barthet, who insisted we collaborate on an exhibition. Needless to say, the moment I visited her studio, I needed no convincing. (And... during every studio visit, she treats me to some incredible goodies.)

We've been discussing this exhibition for over a year-and-a-half, during which the narrative and theme evolved organically. Eventually, Liliana realised that what she truly wanted to express was, in fact, buried in her memories. This exhibition is an intimate one, where she invites us to imagine her as a little girl, tiptoeing into a room in her grandmother's house, a room strikingly similar to our Kamra ta' Fuq. This was triggered by a strange déjà-vu during Liliana's visit to the exhibition space, when she exclaimed, "Mel, I've painted this staircase and this room before!" The checkered tiles, the window, and the natural light flooding the room had stirred something; a memory of a room in her grandmother's house in Żebbuġ. Two of the paintings, created years ago, will be borrowed and included in the exhibition, as they are essential to the narrative and the development of the body of work.

The exhibition presents 12 sculptures, 12 small paintings and a large painting. The sculptures, which are executed in mixed media, feature Liliana's signature elongated figures, reminiscent of Giacometti's figures. The small paintings are primi pensieri - the quick first thoughts from which the sculptures emerged. Their spontaneity contrasts with the meticulous detail required in the sculptural works, which are almost objets d'art.

These sculptures are imbued with personal meaning. Many of the fabrics used are handmade heirlooms, treasured over generations in her family. During a studio visit, Liliana opened a chest brimming with beautiful old textiles, some of which belonged to her grandmother and mother, pieces she once played with as a child at her grandmother's house. Other sculptural elements stem from childhood discoveries: trinkets, shiny buttons, pins. These precious fragments animate each figure with layers of personal history and imaginary tales. The characters don't just recall real memories but also the fantastical stories Liliana imagined as a child and which involved the characters present in the show, all quirky and whimsical, now reinterpreted through adult eyes.

The narrative begins at the bar downstairs, where a painting shows a blue-haired woman startled from her reading, gazing up at a staircase. If curiosity takes over, one might peek around the stair railing - only to find the source of the commotion. A hybrid bunny-girl, part woman, part rabbit, slides down the banister. She has a rabbit's head, a nude torso, tiny black shorts, knee-length socks, ballerina shoes, and her legs spread wide. She isn't alone. A panicked frog tries to stop her descent, to keep her within the Room Upstairs. A red balloon, an abstract bouquet, and an all-seeing eye float at the centre of the action. Could this creature have escaped from the blue-haired woman's book? Books can be dangerously fun, and this one seems to hold more than just tales.

If one is brave enough to venture up the stairs, one will discover a curious crowd of figures, most of them dressed up, while others in the nude, some of them seem to stir further mischief, while others seem to mind their own business, lost in their own worlds. Each sculpture carries clues: gestures, props or costumes that hint at the character's story. Some of them also include animals.

Animals are a very important part of these sculptures. Fleri Soler loves animals, but not as pets, but as animals and creatures that one finds in a garden, and in nature, like fish, frogs, insects, lizards, rabbits, cats, ermines and bats.

Żrinġ shows a frog in mid-leap, its finger tied to a recurring red balloon. In another, a seated red-haired girl, wearing striped tights and a blue shirt, with a rabbit on her shoulder, clutches a similar balloon. A third work merges these motifs: the same girl is enveloped by a frog-like "costume-cape", transporting her from the real world into a fantastical one.

The blue-haired woman Żafira appears again, this time in 3D, wearing a green dress, pointed red shoes, book in hand. The title? Fuq, fil-Kamra, of course.

Alka shows another mysterious figure wearing a blue lace not-too-long ballgown with what looks like a 1930s pilot's cap and goggles, perhaps a nod to Amelia Earhart and a child's dream of flying while dressed as a princess. She's also sporting some flashy rings!

Another enigmatic character in Kappara u l-Ballottra walks her weasel, when abruptly points to something outside the gallery window. Feel free to search for what caught her attention. (I did see a couple of heads turning).

A particularly bold redhead is nude, fully exposed, with her legs spread wide apart, in a pose echoing Courbet's L'Origine du Monde. During one of my studio visits at Liliana's (I think we had cannoli Siciliani that time), we had an interesting conversation about the fact that few female artists portray full frontal female nudity and at that point Liliana decided that she will do one of her girls in full nude, with nothing hidden away, unapologetically and powerful.

There are two rabbit sculptures. Cuniculus shows a skinny rabbit, his expression a bit aloof and a bit cunning at the same time, giving a Donnie Darko vibe, but he seems to be indecisive and waiting for the visitor to assign him a narrative for his story. The other Afrodita is again our staircase slider, here in his sculptural form, she is also up to no good and in the midst of causing some cacophony. These rabbits both emit this bizarre feeling of blurring the line between childhood memory and surreal adult reflection.

Fuq, fil-Kamra is more than an exhibition; it's a portal. A space where memory, imagination and whimsy collide. Fleri Soler invites us to climb those stairs, open the book, and lose ourselves in a world where the strange is familiar, and the familiar is delightfully strange.

The exhibition is on until 8 June, at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, Mqabba.

For more information check their social media pages.

Photos: Nigel Fleri Soler