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1. What's been the most defining moment in your career so far? I don't think there has been one single defin- ing moment. For me, it has been more about reaching a point where I stopped asking myself whether I was 'allowed' to call myself an artist and simply accepted that this is who I am. There have, of course, been milestones. Participating in Venice this year was incredibly significant because suddenly the work I had been developing in my studio in Malta was part of an international conversation. Winning a special award at the Florence Biennale was another important moment. Those experiences give you confidence, but they don't define the work itself. The bigger turning point was realis- ing that I didn't want to make paintings simply because they were attractive. I wanted them to ask questions. A lot of my work now revolves around beauty, but not beauty as something perfect or permanent. I am interested in what happens when beauty changes, breaks down, ages, disappears and becomes something else. That realisation changed everything. It changed the materials I use, the subjects I explore and eventually the way I think about exhibitions. I suppose the most defining mo- ment is still happening: becoming increasingly confident in my own artistic language and understanding that I don't have to make work that fits comfortably into an existing category. 2. As an artist, how do you navigate the world and speed of social media? Very carefully. I love what social media can do for an artist. It allows someone working in Mal- ta to show their work to people anywhere in the world. It has opened doors that would have been almost impossible to open in the past. But I also think there is a danger in allowing the speed of social media to become the speed of your creativity. My work is slow. I work with earth, plants, stones, rust, handmade paper and natural pigments. Materials have their own behaviour and sometimes their own timetable. A pigment may react differently from what I expected. Paper absorbs something. A surface cracks. Something dries in a particular way. Those accidents can become part of the work. An algorithm doesn't really care about any of that! So I try to use social media as a window into my practice rather than allowing it to become the practice itself. I share the finished work, but I also like showing fragments of the process because that is where so much of the meaning lives. And I remind myself that I don't have to respond to every trend. The internet moves very quickly. Art doesn't have to. I think audiences can recognise when something has been made because an artist genuinely had something to say, rather than because it would make a good post. 3. Do you consider artificial intelligence a threat to your career, or an opportunity? I think AI is forcing artists to ask a very impor- tant question: What makes something art in the first place? I am very aware of the changes AI is bringing. It can produce extraordinary images in seconds, and that challenges our understanding of originality, authorship and even what we mean when we say 'making'. But my own practice is very physical. I work with materials that come from the earth and from living things. I collect, experiment, layer, stain, tear, press and sometimes destroy. There are things that happen in the studio that I couldn't have planned. A piece of rust leaves a particular mark. A plant releases a pigment. Handmade paper absorbs colour differently. These physical traces carry the history of the process. AI can imitate an aesthetic, but for me the story behind the material is part of the artwork. I actually think AI may make that more valuable, not less. We just have to make sure our youth need to take care how to use it and recognise it for what it is. When images can be produced endlessly and almost instantly, perhaps we will become more interested in things that have taken time, have imperfections, have a physical presence and carry the evidence of a human hand. So I don't see AI simply as a threat. I see it as another technological shift that artists will have to understand. I want to make things that could only have come from my particular experience of being human. 4. How do you stay motivated and inspired, especially during tough times or when the work feels hard? I don't always stay motivated. I think that is an important thing to admit. There are days when a painting doesn't work, an application gets re- jected, a project becomes complicated or you simply wonder what on earth you're doing. Being an artist can be incredibly exciting, but it can also be quite vulnerable. What keeps me going is curiosity. I'm con- stantly looking at plants, old walls, stones, rust, shadows, decay, landscapes, people's faces. I'm fascinated by what happens to things over time. Something can be beautiful precisely because it is changing. I also try not to treat failure as the opposite of success. Sometimes the work that doesn't work gives you the idea for the work that eventually does. And I have learned that you cannot measure an artistic life by individual moments. One exhibition goes well; another doesn't. One opportunity arrives; another disappears. If you allow every external reaction to determine your confidence, you become exhausted. So I keep returning to the studio and to the questions that interest me. As long as I am curious, I am not finished. I think that is what keeps me moving. 5. How do you balance your creative instincts with the expectations of your audience or collaborators? I listen, but I don't outsource my artistic deci- sions. I think it is important to understand your audience. If people are going to live with your work, collect it, exhibit it or spend time with it, you have to respect that relationship. But there is a difference between listening to people and making work simply because you think they will like it. Some of the things I am interested in are not necessarily comfortable. I am interest- ed in ageing, decay, mortality, impermanence and the destruction of conventional ideas of beauty. Those subjects don't always produce an immediately pretty artwork. But I don't want to make something safe just because safe is easier to sell. At the same time, collaboration has become increasingly important in my practice. Working with curators, galleries, de- signers and other creatives can push the work somewhere I couldn't have reached alone. The trick is knowing which suggestions open the work up and which ones dilute it. Ultimate- ly, I have to remain responsible for the work. I don't want to make art that tells people what they want to hear. I want to make art that gives them something to think about. 6. How do you approach a new project? Do you have a specific process or routine you follow? Usually with a question rather than an answer. I might start with something that has been bothering me or fascinating me for a while— beauty, memory, ageing, nature, transforma- tion. Then I research. I read, look at artists, think about philosophy and, most importantly, start experimenting with materials. The material often takes over from there. I don't completely control the materials, and I don't necessarily want to. Sometimes the material makes a decision for me. That is one of the things I love about working this way. There is always an element of uncertainty. For a larger project, I usually build a conceptual framework first and then allow the individual works to develop within it. That is what has happened with Deconstruct- ing Beauty. What started as an exploration of beauty has grown into an entire environment involving painting, installation, video, sculp- ture, paper and an artist's book. I don't have a rigid formula. I start with an idea, but I leave enough room for the artwork to surprise me. If I knew exactly what the finished work was going to be before I started, I probably wouldn't need to make it. 7. Can you let us in on some of the future projects, works? The next major chapter is Deconstructing Beauty, which opens at Spazju Kreattiv in 2027. It is probably the most ambitious project I have undertaken because it isn't simply an exhibi- tion of paintings. I am creating an environment that the audience will move through, with different stages exploring ideas of perma- nence, beauty, transformation, mortality and regeneration. There will be paintings, installa- tions, natural materials, video and sculptural elements. I am particularly interested in the idea that the visitor doesn't simply look at the work but enters into it. There is also an artist's book developing alongside the exhibition. I have become very interested in the book as an artwork in itself, so I want it to be tactile and connected to the materials and ideas of the exhibition rather than simply being a catalogue. Internationally, I am continuing to develop opportunities through exhibitions and art fairs, including Dubai, while building relationships with galleries, curators and collectors outside Malta. I am also continuing to explore my work around memory, including postcards, hand- made objects and participatory projects. I'm not interested in making the same painting for the next 20 years. I'm interested in seeing how far the idea can go. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 SEPTEMBER 2026 Theatre Olivier winner Layton Williams to lead one- off musical theatre workshop in Valletta ARTS • TV • WHAT'S ON BY LAURA CALLEJA suggestions by email lcalleja@mediatoday.com.mt The Q & A MICHELLE GIALANZE 7 questions for... Extra round Who are your biggest influences, and how have they shaped your work? Anselm Kiefer has influenced me through his use of materials to carry memory and history. Georges Bataille's ideas around beau- ty, mortality and discomfort are also important to Deconstructing Beauty. I return to thinkers like Bachelard and Benjamin, but my greatest influence is nature and its cycles. Michelle Gialanze, known professionally as Mixa Painting, is a Maltese contemporary artist whose practice explores beauty, memory, nature and transformation through natural pigments and organic materials. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 2026 Venice Biennale, and she is currently developing Deconstructing Beauty, a major interdisciplinary exhibition opening at Spazju Kreattiv in April 2027. Information about her work can be found at www.mixapainting.com. Art Malta-based photographer Angie Balzan wins international Spotlight Awards grand prize PAGE 2 PAGE 3 MaltaToday is supported by Arts Council Malta