Luciano Micallef revised

In this interview over lunch, artist Luciano Micallef shares his views with Josanne Cassar about art, the lack of art critics, his upcoming exhibition and his Italian connections. From the Malta Independent:

“We’ll start you off with some meze,” he tells us, then goes off and returns with bruschetta with mozzarella di bufala and tomatoes, olives, anchovies, various dips and small rolls. The Italian touches are welcome by Luciano, whose affinity for Italy can be heard in the way he lapses into the language in casual conversation. “Well, we speak Italian at home,” he explains. “There is a Sicilian connection because my wife’s mother is Sicilian so they speak Italian between them.

I also spent a number of years studying in Italy which was a major influence. Their temperament is very similar to ours, but I also like their way of life. If financially I could afford it, I would even consider spending more time there than I do here because I feel the magic of Malta is gradually vanishing. I find that very upsetting because I never thought Malta could be replaced. In any case, I feel more that I belong to the Mediterranean, rather than just being Maltese.”

Luciano has come a long way from his childhood in Birkirkara, the middle child of nine children. “I remember I was critical of everything even then, and would ask my mother why there had to be so many children. I was the only one who ever asked such things!” Perhaps because of the inevitable crowded conditions, even as a child he always yearned for his own space, something which lingers with him to this day. At his home in San Pawl tat-Targa, the studio is an area which is “his”, where he can work and relax and even sleep if he chooses to.

He loves travelling around the island on a motorbike, stopping to roam around the pathways and countryside of the villages. He used to run regularly, which probably explains his trim figure, and he is still a light eater. He is analytical, pensive, forever questioning the forces which lead us down one road and not another.“We didn’t choose anything in our life, we are the way we are because of the energies around us influencing our lives and our decisions. Even when we think we have made a conscious decision to do something of our own free will, in reality it was a series of events which led us to that decision.”...

As for his upcoming exhibition, Transitions: “There have been four different stages in my work and each exhibition is a continuation, a sequence, and search for an aspect of something. Before this, metal was primary, but now I’m back to my trademark which is colour. Hopefully, I can create positive energy which we need to survive. “You can either complain endlessly about how you wish things to be or be positive.

I am always keen to notice the reaction of the viewer to my work. I am revising all the work I’ve done, that is why I’ve called it Transitions – a period in which I am reviewing all the work I’ve done. And by trying to transmit the thinking process through painting, I believe painting can help us to understand what is taking place. I am writing a book to make these ideas more tangible.”

Luciano Micallef in Tripoli