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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 DECEMBER 2021 5 ART Works by James Vella Clark on display at Il-Haġar Museum IL-ĦAĠAR Museum in Victo- ria Gozo is hosting 'Recent Ab- stracts' a collection of abstract works by expressionist artist James Vella Clark. The exhibi- tion which opens for the public today will remain open till the 11th of January 2022 and is being accompanied by a fully illustrat- ed catalogue, number 15 in the Il-Ħaġar GEMS series. The artist admits that when he was invited to exhibit at Il-Ħaġar Museum, he felt it was a bit early, especially given that he was just coming out from another solo exhibition last May. "I always believed that an art- ist should exhibit when he has something valid to say, and up to a few months ago, I did not have much to say. But once I started putting all the works together and new works started evolving, I started seeing some very bold statements. I felt there was some- thing worth saying out there." The collection chosen for this exhibition consists of 20 works, half of which were completed in 2020 and the rest over the past few months. "Although some of the works may be classified as an extension of the 'Convergence' series, there is certainly a shift happening, which at first was not at all ap- parent. It became more accentu- ated once I started collating and shortlisting the works for this exhibition. Eventually, the collec- tion turned out to be a personal and needed reaffirmation of the direction I have assumed with my non-realistic style." "I needed to go through this process to ascertain that this is where I want to be heading with my near future work. In fact, all the works in this collection are from these past two years – a pe- riod that has also re-shaped our collective outlook of life as we knew it," concluded the artist. Born in 1975, Vella Clark's ar- tistic debut took place in 2001 with his first solo exhibition, fol- lowed by several others in Malta and abroad. His works have been described as expressionist, and al- though he is mostly known for his bold 'abstracted' interpretations of the Maltese urban and rural landscape, his works have been gradually gaining a more abstract dimension. As his landscapes be- came increasingly abstract, these eventually formed part of a natu- ral process that led to the artist's current abstract work. Today, the artist's main idiom is abstraction which lends mostly to the ab- stract expressionist movement of the fifties and sixties. Besides being present in many private collections in Malta and abroad, his work is also present in numerous hotels, banks and corporate collections. James Vel- la Clark lives and works from his studio in Valletta. Vella Clark will be present at the museum for a 'Meet the Artist' talk on December 13 at 11am. Aħmar Ħelu w'Qares: Darren Tanti's most 'profound' life moments ARTIST Darren Tanti 's works will be on display at il-Kamra ta' Fuq in Mqabba. Aħmar Ħe- lu w'Qares (Bittersweet Red) is artist Darren Tanti 's instinc- tive reaction to the most pro- found moments in his life; the incredible joy of blossoming life and the deep stoic sadness in the face of looming death. These events are very 'unique', but in the wider con- text of life, they are universal and frequent. Every unique story has been lived over and over again and shall be relived for innumerable times, and art is the proof of it. Inspired by this reflection, Tanti's works manifest the interaction between past and present. The large paintings perme- ate the space at Il-Kamra ta' Fuq, inviting the viewer to feel engulfed within the artist's thoughts and feelings. Most of the paintings presented are 'reproductions' of paintings from the past, artworks made by other artists in other cen- turies that show, in a way or another, the ongoing loop of human experiences. The artworks are mainly mixed media that is black col- our pencil, white chalk and oil on canvas. In certain moments, the images are subtly revealed through the layers of colour, and in other moments the im- ages reveal properties remi- niscent of Rorschach inkblot. These moments of digression from the original source are the links between the past and the present, the experiences and reflections of our predecessors and the ones the artist has been through fused together. The exhibition will run from 19 November until 12 Decem- ber. Darren Tanti