 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Valletta Contemporary (VC) is an independent exhibition space in Valletta, Malta. Established in April 2018, the gallery is situated in a 400-year-old former warehouse in East Street, very close to St. Barbara Bastions and Lower Barrakka Gardens. [1] [2]
VC is a not-for-profit art space, [3] [4] and is affiliated with the Contemporary Art Organization Ocular. [5]
The Gallery was conceived by the artist and architect Norbert Francis Attard, who is also responsible for the general administration of the gallery. [1] The renovation of the property took ten years and involved the conversion of three former warehouses into a suitable gallery space.
Curated by the Gallery Founder, VC Editions is an initiative that supports selected local and international contemporary artists through commissioning the production of contemporary art pieces. Specific pieces are chosen in consultation with the artist and the gallery. The pieces are then reproduced in numbered editions and made available for sale exclusively through Valletta Contemporary. [19] The Collection features works by various artists such as Carlos Coronas, Eberhard Bosslet, Shawn Maximo, Matthew Attard, Eric Meier, Christian Jaccard, Norbert Francis Attard, Aaron Bezzina, Charlie Cauchi, Alex Attard, and Maxine Attard. [20]
The MET(a) Gala was held at Valletta Contemporary in December 2019. This event brought the worlds of contemporary art and fashion to Malta. [21] Playing on the name of its META foundation, the MET(a) Gala brought together a number of Maltese creatives whose sole aim was to help support this gallery. [22] This one-night fundraising event was held on 14 December 2019, [23] and included a number of people involved in the fields of cuisine, design, fashion, architecture, and art. [24]
Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS for short) hosted the MICAS International Art Weekend in October 2019. Valletta Contemporary hosted a number of speakers, including Sir Norman Foster. [25] The event also featured a solo exhibition 'Diktat' by the German artist Eric Meier. [13]
The music of Malta ranges across a spectrum of genres such as traditional folk music, metal and various forms of electronica.
L-Għanja tal-Poplu is a popular Maltese song competition first organized by Youth Travel Circle (YTC) on 5 May 1973 at the St. Albert College in Valletta. The founder of YTC is Rev. Maurice Mifsud. Initially the contest had to register as YTC members. From 1987 onward, the contest took a national dimension. The competing songs are sung primarily in Maltese and are written either by the singers themselves or other songwriters. In the 1990s the contest started being transmitted on local television stations. This contest is today organised by the voluntary organisation L-Għanja tal-Poplu and is also supported by Arts Council Malta.
Setenay Özbek is a Turkish-born artist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. Özbek is of Ubykh descent.
Gabriel Caruana was a Maltese artist who worked primarily in ceramics. He studied at the Malta School of Art (1953–59), the Accademia Pietro Vannucci in Perugia (1965), the School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (1966) and the Istituto Statale per la Ceramica in Faenza (1967).
The history of the Jews in Malta spans two millennia. A Jewish community is attested on the islands by the 4th-5th century. Jews prospered in Malta under Arab and Norman rule. They were expelled in 1492, and a community could only re-establish itself after 1798 under British rule. In the 19th and 20th century, the Jewish community in Malta welcomed refugees from Italy and Central Europe, escaping Nazi rule. Today, a small community remains well established on the islands.
Balzan Football Club is a Maltese football club from the village of Balzan that competes in the Maltese Premier League, the top tier of Maltese football. The club was founded as Balzan Youths in 1937 and has been playing in the top division since 2010. They were renamed Balzan FC in June 2012.
Norbert Francis Attard is a Maltese multi-disciplinary artist, art collector, gallerist and entrepreneur known for his varied approaches to artistic projects, multi-media works, installations and anthropological-based projects.
John Busuttil Leaver is a Maltese visual artist and painter. He has worked in graphic book design and written about contemporary art. He is philosophical about his work and sees what he does as non-commercial: a statement about the contemporary. He is known for his solo show 'A Diary of Obsessions', for work which commented against overdevelopment.
Gaia Cauchi M.Q.R. is a Maltese singer. She represented Malta at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and won the contest with her song "The Start".
Antoine Camilleri MQR, was a Maltese artist and art teacher who made a lasting impact on the development of Maltese modern and contemporary art. He retains a special and unique place in Maltese Contemporary Art, mainly of a spirited father, loving teacher and as an artist who matured through the hardship of life. Camilleri's work is very personal, usually drawing from events or experiences in the artist's life. His self-image in particular is repeated throughout his work using various media including, oils, lino prints, clay and objet trouvé. Throughout the years, Antoine Camilleri experimented with a variety of media and he will be mostly remembered for his unique style as pictures in clay involving the working and manipulation of clay and its dry cracked textures.
Mary de Piro is a Maltese artist.
Galerie Youn is an art gallery featuring up-and-coming Canadian and international artists in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, most of whom were discovered on Instagram. Originally established online as the Flying Rooster Contemporary Project (FRCP) in 2012, the gallery opened in 2013 as a brick and mortar location in Montreal's Mile End. Now located at 384 St. Paul Street West in the Old-Port's historical district, the gallery represents emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, typically half from Canada and half from the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 2021, the gallery received the "Best in the City" award from Time Out. Their book catalogues are part of the permanent collection of the Thomas J. Watson Library. The director and founder, Juno Youn, is a native of South Korea and a graduate of OCAD.
Francis Sultana is a Maltese-born furniture and interior designer. He is regularly featured in the annual AD100 list compiled by Architectural Digest. The Times says he is "a furniture designer and decorating mastermind" and also mentions his famous clients. Financial TimesHow To Spend It magazine said "his baroque-meets-pop art style is making grand statements in an ever-widening circle of homes." Living Etc magazine describes Sultana's style as "luxurious, bespoke-driven and sumptuous". In 2018 Sultana was made Ambassador of Culture for Malta. He was named as one of the Top 20 interior designers by Wallpaper magazine and Top 100 Interior Designers by House & Garden magazine. The Financial Times said of his first hotel project La Palma Hotel, Capri for Oetker Collection that it is "a glamorous new start for Capri's oldest hotel ". In 2021 Sultana became custodian of The Hunting Lodge, the former home of British interior designers John Fowler and Nicky Haslam. ". As well as running his own atelier, Sultana is also CEO of David Gill Gallery ".
Tabita Rezaire is a French new media artist of French Guianese and Danish descent, "health-tech-political" therapist, and "kemetic" and kundalini yoga teacher. She has presented her work at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, Arebyte Gallery, London, the Athens Bienniale, MAXXI, Rome, and Artspace, Sydney. Her book is Conscience u.terre.ine. (2022)
Loranne Vella is a Maltese writer, translator and performer based in Brussels. She has won the Malta National Book Council's National Book Prize several times, including Best Novel in Maltese or English for Rokit (2018) and Marta Marta (2023). She is co-editor of the Maltese-language literary journal Aphroconfuso.
Stefanie Hessler is a German-born contemporary art curator, an art writer, and the current director of Swiss Institute in New York. From 2019 to 2022 she was the director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Trondheim, Norway.
Anna Grima, is an artist whose works have been exhibited in several European countries. Some of her work is held permanently in the National Art Collection of Malta through the Fondazzjoni Kreattività Art Collection.
Luciano Micallef is a Maltese abstract artist. He is one of the most famous artists in Malta for abstract art and has multiple paintings all over the island.
Marlon Chircop, better known by his artist name Lon Kirkop, is a Maltese novelist, playwright, singer-songwriter and visual artist. He has received numerous accolades throughout his career, including two national book prizes: one in the Drama category for Fil-Ħajja li Jmiss u Drammi Oħra tat-Triq, and the Prize for Best Emerging Author. In 2020, he won The Literary Contest Of Novels For Youth 2020, organised by the National Book Council and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, for his debut novel Mitt Elf Isem Ieħor: HappyVeganGirlJules. Additionally, he also won the prestigious Maltese song contest L-Għanja tal-Poplu as a composer and lyricist with the song Fil-Kexxun.