Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1500676
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 JUNE 2023 5 THEATRE Alex Dalli exhibits works from 45-year career Showing at the Malta Society of Arts from 8 to 28 June, the solo exhibition titled Il-Ħabba tal-Għajn will feature works in varying styles from Dalli's career spanning over 45 years IL-ĦABBA tal-Għajn, a solo exhibition by Alex Dalli taking place at the Malta Society of Arts' Galleries between 8 and 28 June in Valletta, follows the painter's journey from the figu- rative into the abstract. Sitting at the cusp between the Modern and the Contemporary, Dalli's practice has evolved, over 45 years, from a desire to escape the difficult conditions of childhood to a deeper concern with the spiritual in art. As Alex Dalli developed as an artist, his gaze turned from the external to the internal and his work necessitated a parallel shedding of form in order to ex- press subtle ideas, feelings, and abstract concepts. His sensitivity to colour and surface drove him to develop the minimal style that he is now known for. Dalli's images merge the per- sonal and the universal with a special focus on the small and the unseen. He thinks of the cre- ative act in cosmic terms. "Just as I myself grow, and the world de- velops around me, I also want to grow things and nourish that hu- man creative ability, which mir- rors the first act of creation," he says. Nevertheless, Dalli couches his minimalism in a language of humility, seeing his role as art- ist in reductive terms, where he chips away at his subject until an essential and unostentatious core of truth is reached. The curator of the exhibition Gabriel Zammit offers some context to Dalli's journey from his beginnings to Il-Ħabba tal-Għajn. "In history and litera- ture, there is an archetype of the poet/artist who, as he gradually goes blind and loses sight of the external world, gains a deeper, steadier, internal sight. Homer, for example, went blind, as did Jorge Luis Borges, James Joyce and John Milton," explains Zam- mit. He goes on to disclose that Alex Dalli is also slowly losing his sight. "As Alex goes blind to the world around him, his paintings open, through the deep darkness, a single bright eye (għajn), which has the capacity to pare back and reveal the centre (ħabba) and the hidden reality of things. Il-Ħabba tal-Għajn follows the artist's long walk down the luminescent cor- ridors of his own blindness." The exhibition takes its cue from Michael Zammit's Għana 'l Hena (APS, 2005), which is a cycle of poetry inspired by Sanskrit phi- losophy and mantra meditation. Zammit uses language to do the same thing Dalli does with paint, and his words provide a context and touchstone for reading Dalli's intricately coded images. MSA President Arch. Adrian Mamo states that the Malta So- ciety of Arts is delighted to be hosting yet another of Dalli's solo exhibitions after 2019's Preżen- za. "Alex has professed that the space we have here at Palazzo de La Salle is not just a canvas for his works, but is actually an inspira- tion for him in and of itself. It makes us to proud to be hosting the works of an important con- temporary artist like Alex, and we invite you all to visit," he con- cludes. Il-Ħabba tal-Għajn, an exhibi- tion by Alex Dalli and curated by Gabriel Zammit, opens between 8 and 28 June 2023 at the Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts, 219 Republic Street, Valletta. Entrance is free. For more details about the exhibition please visit https://artsmalta.org/event/ il-habba-tal-ghajn-exhibition- by-alex-dalli/ or the Facebook event https://fb.me/e/2zSn- JkrZQ Alex Dalli, Squares (2022) oil, acrylic and cement on board, photo by Lisa Attard Alex Dalli, Symphony in Blue (2022) oil and acrylic on board, photo by Lisa Attard Alex Dalli, Siekta (2021) oil on board, photo by Lisa Attard Alex Dalli, Still Life With Skull (1978) oil on paper, photo by Lisa Attard