7 School of Art students to showcase their talent through Kor Malta

The Mikiel Anton Vassalli College – Malta School of Art is collaborating with Kor Malta and Spazju Kreattiv to give an opportunity to 7 students to showcase their talent and work beyond the school, within the community.

The Malta School of Art was founded almost a hundred years ago and since its establishment, it has exerted a major influence in the artistic research of visual arts in Malta. Today, the school continues to support learners to reach their full potential in the visual arts by providing specialised courses and opportunities to participate in diverse projects.

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Kor Malta – Malta National Choir will perform Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri patientis sanctissima (‘’The Most Holy Limbs of Our Suffering Jesus’’) on 25th March at Spazju Kreativ accompanied by the Valletta International Baroque Ensemble. The piece is a contemplation of seven parts of Christ’s crucified body – his pierced feet, bent knees, bleeding hands, wounded side, revered breast, loving heart, and thorn-crowned face.

During the concert, seven learners from the MAVC – Malta School of Art will each be contemplating one of these seven body parts described in the music through their own medium of choice. At the end of the concert, the audience will be able to visit the artists and explore the work created.

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For more information about the concert and the tickets kindly follow the link below:

https://www.kreattivita.org/en/event/buxtehude-membra-jesu-nostri/

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The 7 participating learners are:

Jonathan Mohnani (b.1975), is an artist of Maltese-Indian heritage. Much of his interest centres upon integrating Eastern philosophy into a Western mindset using media such as clay, stained glass, fused glass and bizzilla. His works are founded in studies in medicine, psychology, philosophy, theology and spirituality. He is currently following a wood and stone carving class and an accredited course in visual arts at the Malta School of Art. Through this formal training and guidance, he felt supported to continue expressing his journey of self-discovery and his views on social constructs also through drawing, painting and sculpture.

For Jonathan, the highly expressive composition Membra Jesu Nostri by Dietrich Buxtehude, brings forth a sense of deep suffering and the extremes of mankind’s cruelty and ignorance. Using acrylics and charcoal and adopting a symbolic language, exploring the parallelisms between the pierced and bloody feet of Christ and the footprints of innocent victims of war, fleeing in exodus bloodshed and devastation.

Raymond Borg (b.1963) started studying art at a young age, initially at Targa Gap, where he acquired skills related to design, clay modelling and sculpture in stone and wood, to then focus on jewellery design. He furthered his studies in design with Donald Friggieri and wood carving with Carmel Camilleri and Anton Agius. In 1994, Borg completed a diploma in painting at the Malta School of Art.

Borg is currently continuing his artistic exploration in clay modelling and 3D work. For the event in collaboration with Kor Malta and Spazju Kreattiv, Borg will develop a work in response to the contemplate on the knees of Christ, through a combination of drawing painting and clay modelling.

Vlada Pagasova (b.1970) is originally from Russia but have been traveling around the world for the past 20 years, through India, Nepal, South America and Europe. Her artistic work stems from the many impressions of life, nature and architecture during these travels. Her first entry into arts came through her grandparents as she was growing up. Later she studied art in India and Indonesia and more recently in Malta at the School of Art.

Pagasova combines different techniques as the bases of an experimental process that pushes the boundaries of her creativity. The work inspired by the contemplation of the hands of Christ will used mixed media techniques to explore the crusifiction as a symbol of love towards all the people of the world through a study of the gestures related to the act of praying.

Vincent Cassar (b.1971) started developing his artistic talents in his late thirties, deciding to take up formal art lessons at the Malta School of Art in 2015. In 2017, he started a three-year Advanced Visual Arts Course at the school and is currently continuing his studies to develop a portfolio of works that reflect his personal world view.

Cassar works mainly with mixed media and collage techniques, using mark making techniques and found materials to create new compositions. For the work inspired by the contemplation of the wounded side of Christ, Cassar will employ his favoured approach to explore the contrast between end of life and beginning of life.

Peter M. Farrugia (b.1986) is a trainee psychotherapist working at the intersection of spirituality, creativity and healing. His creative practice involves the expression and exploration of dream images. He first became a student at the Malta School of Art as a child, studying drawing and painting before focusing on written media. Since then, Farrugia has increasingly incorporated therapeutic elements in his processes of art-making with unconventional materials.

This project will see Farrugia explore techniques of layered mono-printing, to better understand the Revered Breast of Christ and its visual history as an image of compassion, particularly in the present context of ongoing warfare in Europe.

Guo Ming An (b.1975) is a watercolor painter from China and is a member of the California CWA Watercolor Society and Melbourne Watercolor Society. His works have been exhibited in various exhibitions including The International Watercolor Exhibition, the Malaysia Internet Art Competition and the World Famous Watercolor Works competition. Currently, he is follow the Creative Approaches to Drawing and Painting course at the Malta School of Art.

For this project Guo Ming An will approach the contemplation of the Loving Heart of Jesus Christ through an exploration of the theme of love. Adopting the watercolour medium, the artist will focus on the rose as a symbol of the soul, exploring the sacred and romantic values of this flower.

Emily Farrugia (b. 1981) remembers her childhood characterised by creating art in any form. She studied art at Advanced level under the guidance of Ceaser Attard and the late Isabelle Borg. Her career as a lecturer teaching Graphical Communication focuses more on the drawing of forms and for some time her artistic endeavours depicted architectural and rural scenes in Malta. She is currently contenuing her studies at the Malta School of Art. She finds insperation in exploring and examing the different stages in life, and experements with different media to communicate this through her work.

This project will see Farrugia contemplating on the image of the suffering Christ, inflicted by the Crown of Thorns and the acts of oppressors, an image mirrored by the suffering of the Ukrainian People.