Saturday 14 June

Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) formally opened its third exhibition since its grand opening in October 2024, with the group show The Space We Inhabit featuring the work of Maltese artists of excellence Caesar Attard, Vince Briffa, Joyce Camilleri, Austin Camilleri, Anton Grech, and Pierre Portelli.

The exhibition, which opens to the public on 14 June, includes paintings, sculpture, video and sound-based work and takes place across all three main exhibition floors of the museum, with each artist responding to the theme of space – both real and imagined – and by extension, place.

MICAS executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat said the excellence and distinctiveness of the artists’ work for The Space We Inhabit was more than a celebration of Maltese art. “MICAS was created to serve as an international platform for Maltese art… the old distinctions between the ‘local’ and ‘foreign’ do no justice to artists whose intellectual confidence is at par with any of their peers.”

The Space We Inhabit marks a significant milestone for Maltese contemporary art, whose evolution towards modernism saw Maltese artists frequently trained in European centres, engaging with global themes while maintaining connections to the island’s unique cultural heritage. For many, as for the artists featured in this group exhibition, this has led to recognition and opportunities well beyond Malta.

Artistic Director Edith Devaney said the exhibition was an essential element for MICAS’s ambitious programme to present first-class exhibitions on a global platform, shining a light on the very best art from across the world while referencing Maltese culture and wider cultural interests.

“This exhibition underpins our commitment to celebrating excellence within national practice,” Devaney said. “My experience has been that whether well-known or not, all good artists share one thing in common… ‘their own point of view’… This has certainly been the case with Caesar Attard, Vince Briffa, Austin Camilleri, Joyce Camilleri, Anton Grech and Pierre Portelli.

“On display is a rigorous focus of thought twinned with a remarkable quality of the painting, execution of sculpture, originality of ideas with the six original ‘points of view’ coming together to contribute to the examination of the theme while also presenting works of great ambition and beauty.”

Minister for Culture, Lands and Local Government Owen Bonnici paid tribute to MICAS’s efforts at using its international networks to bring artistic clout to the island, citing as an example the works on display of Conrad Shawcross, Cristina Iglesias and Michele Oka Doner, as well as the opening exhibition by Joana Vasconcelos, but also the forthcoming Milton Avery retrospective.

“These are clear signs of the seriousness of this institution, and that the MICAS board and its international and creative committees are building important relations with the international world of art.”

Bonnici also described artists Caesar Attard, Joyce Camilleri, Anton Grech, Pierre Portelli, Vince Briffa, and Austin Camilleri – practitioners whose lives were committed to the pursuit of their art – as “connoisseurs of imagination, whose introspection helps viewers contemplate their existence and indeed, the space we inhabit, both physically as well as intellectually.”