Sensual and sentimental Patrick Scicluna paints exotic images of a personal realism at once incredible and fabulous. His dreamy softness and warmth achieve a sense of evocative nostalgia: moody, romantic and contagious. Unpretentious and unpresumptuous he regards Turner as his mentor and declares himself self-taught.

By E.V. Borg

Mario is a social realist, a romantic visionary, a mystic, a lover of nature, of life, of animals, of trees. He is concerned and involved with people, with nature, the environment and the earth. His expression is warm, felt and lived. His language, figurative and explicit is universal and quite popular. It is packed with sentiment, with feeling. He lives for art. His art is life.

by E.V. Borg

Joseph Muscat (1934- ) and Leslie Agius (1941- ) have many things in common. They were born in Mosta and lived in the old core. They admire Cezanne and studied art, attended our University together (1964-68), were teachers, became heads of school, part-time lecturers at our University, own a small private art collection and for the sake of friendship have collaborated to organize an art exhibition in Mosta at ‘ir-Razzett tal-Markiz Mallia Tabone’ (14 -27 November, 2009).

by E.V. Borg

‘Elements of Mood’ is an autobiographical statement, a diary expressing intimate feelings, sentiments, emotions and moods. It suggests an attraction and repulsion of forces, a clear polarity and an emphasized dichotomy. There is an equilibrium of forces: tranquillity, serenity and peace on one side and dynamic forces of stress, tension, entanglement, complexity and confusion on the other.

For Joseph Casapinta art is a catalyst, it is therapeutic, it heals the travails and vicissitudes of a journey strewn with obstacles and hurdles to overcome in its path. Moments of despair are interspersed with moments of great joy of oases of peace, of velvety serenity and exuberant celebration.

by E.V. Borg

‘Two Diaries’ is a fascinating journey of experience turned expression by Carmel Bonello (1960 -) and Jeremy Ellul (1975 -). The language is a creative brand of Expressionism quite imaginative, fantastic, bubbling and applied. The exhibition inaugurated on Friday 2nd October will be open to the public at Heritage Malta main office, in Merchants Street Valletta for nearly six weeks till Friday 13th November 2009.

Carmel Bonello with a characteristic beaming smile on his face and twinkling eyes full of joy has a dynamic, powerful and forceful idiom that contrasts with his serene and calm exterior. Jeremy is smart, alert and clever though informal. Bonello’s dazzling career spans decades. He is prolific, spontaneous and improvises with gusto. Full of enthusiasm he is not the tame traditional and conventional Expressionist (of whom there are several in Malta) but an exuberant and extravagant creative force quite unique in his forceful idiom. I can only think of another artist: Catherine Cavallo of his caliber and such dynamic strength.

Jeremy Ellul, much younger, is the self-taught, unfettered artist, without any preconceived ideas, free and unpredictable. He will surely surprise us in future. With just seven years of work behind his back he has already distinguished himself with his freedom of thought and expression. Naturally though Expressionism is at least 100 years old this event might raise a few eyebrows, regarded as a risk; and might even serve as a challenge and catalyst that might stimulate discussion or create some controversy even though the media has exposed the public to wilder work. But that is why man is born free and unshackled.

by E.V. Borg

The hedonism of Salvatore Montanucci is almost menacing in its fantasy, imagination, poetry and magic. He gazes sadly, with nostalgia at the landscape, at the panorama, at the horizon from a belvedere and is overwhelmed by its sensual beauty. Captivated by its gilded relief he tragically and dramatically contemplates its total destruction by pollution, indifference and concrete the effect of modern ‘progress’. No wonder Malcolm Borg sums up his art in one breath: ‘His melancholy is tangible, the Romantic in him escapes reality and seeks shelter in history’.

By E.V. Borg

The work of Anthony P. Vella (b.1961-) reflects a warm, generous disposition and enthusiasm for life. This love for life and nature is explicit and probably contributes to the balance and harmony in Anthony’s works. He balances forms in space with structural design and since his creativity is due to a reflective, contemplative and meditative character there flows a lyrical and poetic element of great sensitivity and sensibility achieving overall rhythm and harmony in a romantic stance.

The rhythm and harmony in his work does not mitigate his expressive approach. The tragedy in the eyes of the protagonist in one particular work reveals an understanding of human suffering and attendant trauma. The modelling, the plasticity and tangible sculptural quality in his works expose a love of the great masters especially the humanity of Giotto.