Currently on display at the Palm Court Lounge at The Phoenicia Malta is a series of abstract paintings forming the latest exhibition, titled ‘Emerging Dimensions’, by artist and art educator, Lewis Zammit.
The paintings are the result of an attentive observation of his surroundings, combined with the continued questioning of complex matters as well as occurrences that are basic in everyday life. It is that artist’s belief that “in the quiet space of our minds, we navigate in our universe of emotions.”
The non-representational paintings possess a main preoccupation with space, and the contradiction between form and space, void versus solid.
Curator Charlene Vella asserts that the artist “believes that space can become form, and that form can be part of space. This was the starting point for each composition, where the forms are as important as what may at first appear to be empty spaces in these paintings.”
Barely defined boundaries executed in the sfumato technique intentionally blur the division between these forms and spaces, potentially representing the ‘unknowns’ that the artist is preoccupied with.
Emerging Dimensions marks Lewis’s first solo exhibition in eight years, as well as a more subdued approach to tone and colour compared to his previous exhibitions, dominated by earthy and cold colours across his oil-on-panel paintings.
“Each painting is primed before the oil glazes are applied. All of the paintings are executed with a number of layers, but some paintings carry more depth in the physical sense since Lewis often applies texture to the paintings that he builds himself,” the curator explains.
“The truth is that Lewis’s paintings may appear to represent outer space, yet nature is the starting point to all of his paintings. Nature is then transformed to create unique compositions.”
‘Emerging Dimensions’ is open throughout the month of March in the Palm Court Lounge, The Phoenicia Malta.
