Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547510
2 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 NOVEMBER 2026 ART Miriam Galea's Għadajjar Għajnejja: Ebbs and An exhibition review by David 'dp' Attard What remains when an im- age refuses to settle? In Miriam Galea's Għadajjar Għajnejja: Ebbs and Flows, looking be- comes an exercise in uncer- tainty. Pale blue washes dis- solve into flashes of fluorescent pink, while marks emerge ten- tatively, only to recede into the surrounding space. Nothing quite holds still and nothing entirely disappears. Rather than offering images to be de- ciphered, Galea invites us to consider the limits of seeing itself. What makes something visible and what might be lost when we insist on giving it a definitive form? Supported by Arts Council Malta and sponsored by the Farsons Foundation, this solo exhibition marks an important development in Galea's artistic practice. Following her illus- trated books Ors (2024) and Ġewwieni/Innards (2025), she moves into the gallery space, extending her exploration of absence, presence and the barely perceptible through a more formal visual language. Her delicate brushstrokes and restrained palette suggest im- ages in the process of material- ising, yet always on the verge of disappearing. There is, however, more to this apparent fragility than an aesthetic fascination with the ephemeral. Galea's attraction to the barely visible is also an act of recognition, perhaps even defiance. She is drawn to what is routinely overlooked: quieter existences, marginal- ised entities, underdogs and narratives that rarely command attention. By questioning the expectation that things must be completed, she challenges a culture that equates value with visibility, productivity and res- olution. Her economical, im- pressionistic language offers just enough information with- out over-explaining, creating a sense of non-finito that leaves room for the spectator's imag- ination. Water provides the concep- tual and visual foundation for this investigation. Transparent yet elusive, it resists permanent form while reflecting and ob- scuring its surroundings. Galea uses these contradictions to explore the difficulty of mak- ing the intangible visible. She describes how a free-flowing gesture is subsequently out- lined, effectively freezing it before it evaporates. This be- comes an analogy for our at- tempts to impose order on re- ality: in seeking to capture and understand something, we risk destroying the very essence we wish to preserve. Galea conse- quently oscillates between an- alytical control and expressive freedom, the latter finding par- ticular expression in her Vie Liquide series. This tension extends into the intimate territory of moth- erhood and the female body, where liquidity becomes a metaphor for embodiment, transformation and vulnerabil- ity. The body emerges not as a self-contained entity but as a site of continuity and change. Beyond the personal, Galea draws on Zygmunt Bauman's concept of liquid modernity to consider the instability of contemporary life. Her isolat- ed figures, wandering through barren landscapes in search of connection, embody this con- dition. Suspended between solitude and belonging, they reflect a society offering un- precedented opportunities for communication while often leaving individuals profoundly disconnected. Another dimension emerges through Galea's relationship with Malta and her experience of living in Brussels. Describ- ing Malta as an island often in- The Quiet Def iance of the Barely Visible