Inspire Inclusion - A celebration of International Women’s Day
Rudy Buhler Art Gallery, Marsaskala, Malta 8th – 31st March, 2024
As you’ll all be aware, last Friday was International Women’s Day and, to mark it, I was pleased to be invited to attend a launch event celebrating contemporary women artists at Rudy Buhler’s gallery in Marsaskala. It was quite an event, very well attended, with wine, music, many of the artists and even the Mayor! Rudy’s gallery brings a contemporary cultural space to Marsaskala and is well respected in the community. He had spoken to me of his plans to celebrate the day with the launch of a month long exhibition previously so I was interested to see what he had put together.
The exhibition is a collective of work from five women artists working in Malta. It’s a really interesting mix of different styles and media, I have to say that one of the overarching themes I get as I view more and more Maltese contemporary art is the sense of colour that seems to pervade. I discussed this with Caroline Said Lawrence, she agreed with me, saying that when exhibiting in London the depth of colour is something that is remarked on. Said is a very well established artist, she’s currently working in Malta but has had quite an international life.
I liked her work, for me, it’s the vibrancy of it, Sopicasso #5 & #6, 2022, are obviously of a series and the titles leave us in no doubt to the influence of Picasso’s cubism, although it is rendered in quite a different way. There’s a focus on expressing the inner world through thoughts and facial expressions. Said drew me to its satirical elements and explained a duality going in within #6 where the shadow of a third face eavesdropping on the main protagonists can be seen, a bit of gossip in the making!
From cubism to the organic sculpture of Jennifer Mallia, these pieces had a notice in front of them almost pointedly asking viewers not to touch, you can see why, they’re incredibly tactile and your initial sense is to pick one up and cradle it. I didn’t! I really liked Intricacies of Existence, lovely, it’s so intermingled you don’t know where it starts or ends, which I guess is the point really. Inevitably, it reminds me of the sea and the pitted nature of the rocky shores as you enter shallow waters, even the slight greenish hues had me thinking of seaweed clinging to the rocks.
Michelle Mahoney is relatively new to the contemporary art scene, once again, her works are infused with dramatic colour. I don’t want to pigeonhole Maltese artists into colour vibrancy but I do just get this strong sense of reflecting on the brightness of living in the sun! Michelle’s works are wild, we discussed her techniques, her’s is a very emotion led method of working, she allows her feelings and moods to express themselves through her work. We discussed, Under your protection, for me, the pen lines give movement and energy and the colours create complex expressions of mood, they bring to mind Kandinsky’s beautiful explorations of the soul.
I may have to eat my words a bit on colour vibrancy with Jo Dunis as she had two monochromatic white paintings on display. Her work is both abstract and textural, almost sculptural on the surface. We discussed the monochromatic nature of one painting and the artist explained that she created the scene and then whitewashed it, they are abstract scenes but you could get a sense of a waterscape by the shores. They were also two smaller more colourful images which made a great comparison of her techniques.
The final artist’s work on display is Anna Galea, she’s a very well established artist who has exhibited world-wide. A lot of her work is large scale, interestingly she works in water colour, giving her paintings a fine, delicate feel. The Beach, gives you that wonderful feel of being on a vast sandy shore with deep orange sand and big stone boulders in the foreground. I’m feeling like I’m at Golden Bay at the north of the island and about to step into those gorgeous blue waters!
In talking to the artists I got a sense of just how much of a journey trying to work as a female artist can be. As with other careers, for women, the route can be a patchwork, picking up and putting down a career path as other responsibilities intervene. Linda Nochlin famously asked – Why have there been no Great Women Artists – over forty years ago, and, although much has changed in opportunities to work as artists, the complexities of being a woman and the responsibilities it entails still pervade and interrupt.
The idea of International Women’s Day can fall on deaf ears or be hijacked for corporate promotion but Rudy’s exhibition is a genuine celebration of International Women’s Day, he’s given real thought to bringing together work from a group of artists that is quite diverse and showcases excellent women artists working in Malta at the moment.
Go see it, celebrate women artists!
Rita Fennell
Gallery Tart