The event, convened by MICAS executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat together with MICAS Artistic Director Edith Devaney, was hosted at the Permanent Mission of Malta to the United Nations, together with the Consul-General of Malta in New York, Denise Demicoli, and the North America office of Visit Malta.

In attendance was an impressive roster of journalists from the art world as well as representatives from Karma Gallery, New York, and various arts professionals, collectors, gallerists and academics.

The event was an occasion to underline the Maltese government’s support of the contemporary arts through the creation of MICAS, a €30 million, partly-EU funded project which has been stewarded by Phyllis Muscat since her appointment to the helm of the MICAS agency.

“We are still young. And we are still coming into our own. But the course is set and, I believe, irreversible,” Muscat told guests in New York, dubbing MICAS as the island’s calling-card to the rest of the world.

“Today I am happy to say that MICAS does not overwrite Malta’s heritage but it actually extends it – as a platform for the kind of cultural exchange that this island has always been capable of, but rarely been given a stage to demonstrate. Standing here in New York – a city that knows something about remaking itself through art – we extend the invitation to you, to come and see what is happening in Malta, at MICAS.”

MICAS Artistic Director Edith Devaney provided an exhaustive rundown of the variety of works that Hodges created in Malta, his largest body of work yet for his first European solo exhibition.

“During his time working long hours on completing the paintings for this exhibition, Hodges would take some respite by walking around Sliema and the baroque city of Valletta in the early mornings and evenings, absorbing the history of the towns and observing life around him, including street performers. And this fascination with human interaction and the societal activities which bind people and communities together are given expression in many works across the exhibition. There is a timeless quality in the subject matter of many of these works, linking modern life to local past traditions, thereby suggesting a continuity.”

In attendance for this event were, among many others, were MICAS board members Claire Cassar and MICAS international committee chair Waqas Wajahat, as well as the artist Sean Cavanaugh, grandson of Milton Avery, and artists Ann Craven, James Prosek, and Nicole Conti; global arts professional Tom Loughman; Wells Fargo global M&A chairman David DeNunzio and his wife Jocelyne DeNunzio; actress Stella Pulo; Sarah Dhobhany from the Joan Mitchell Foundation; academic Heather Nickels from the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University; and gallerist Brendan Dugan from Karma, New York.