As early as his junior school years, Vince Briffa found comfort in artistic expression. He recounts a memory early on in this interview – which he was reminded of lately by a former teacher – when he would hide under a classroom desk to draw in solitude.
This episode is a poignant foretelling of his artistic career where, today, it is his studio in Pieta that offers a space for quiet reflection, for creativity and the daily practice of his life-long passions – be it painting, writing or simply creating.
Those early school years would have a significant impact. “In secondary school, I had art and English teachers who helped set me on this course then, later in my teens, I formed a friendship with artist Ray Pitre and would spend hours drawing in his studio. These were all formative periods that helped shape me.”
Bridging work with academia
In the decades that followed, Vince managed a design and audiovisual studio, gaining extensive hands-on experience before furthering his studies in the UK that placed his attention squarely on nurturing his artistic practice. During this time, in the 1990s and early 2000s, he read for a Master’s and PhD in the UK – but it wasn’t the learning alone that left a lasting imact.
“I remember working with Eduardo Paolozzi, a famous Scottish artist and sculptor, and later meeting Malcolm Le Grice and Gary Hill. These are household names in arts circles and learning, working and exhibiting with the people I met during this time, together with the ambiance of academia, formed me into a well-rounded artist.”
Upon returning to Malta, Vince combined his experience in the professional world with academia to develop the Department of Digital Arts within the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences at the University of Malta, where he is a tenured Professor of Art.
Designed to bridge contemporary artistic practice and digital technology, the courses offered by the department are grounded in a visual arts tradition that provides students with opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary way – effectively preparing them for the ever-changing world of work, much like Vince’s own trajectory that has seen him build a diverse toolkit with which to express his ideas.
A multi-media world
From painting and drawing to video and installation, Vince’s artistic practice embodies the term ‘multi-media’ – at times, a collection of works uses one medium, such as painting, other times it’s video, installation and drawing all at once. For one project, it could be the medium that inspires the concept; other times, it’s the other way around.
“In painting, I find that I’m a seeker. I never really know where I’m going, and that’s the beauty of it. I want to retain that sense of ambiguity and embrace chance,” says Vince. “Many times, the work doesn’t happen, so you scrape everything off and start again, and that’s part of the process. The experiments and the work that doesn’t happen are sometimes more important than that which is finished.”
With video and installation, his role is better described as a finder, looking for the best way to push a concept forward. “Once I explore it fully and know where I want to go, that’s where the work begins.”
For his latest body of work, FARO: Landscape Twice Refracted on display at MUZA for the Malta Biennale 2026, Vince set out his concept first: a lighthouse (faro in Italian) casts a strong beam of light that helps us see, while simultaenously blinding us.
“This is a metaphor for what’s happening to all of us. We’re inundated with images, information all the time which rather than informs us, makes us forget easily. This work tries to resist that impulse of instant gratification, instead inviting us to look slowly and spend time with the work in order to understand it, to become a part of it.”
Vince’s paintings, located within MUZA’s main exhibition hall, complement the work of artist Pierre Portelli, both of whom were invited by curator Dr Katya Micallef to participate in the Malta Pavilion, alongside artists Victor Agius, Roderick Camilleri, and Gulja Holland.
Painting is a daily ritual
Despite a busy calendar of his own current and upcoming exhibitions and others he’s curating – namely For Want of (Not) Measuring, now on display at Spazju Kreattiv – Vince makes a visit to his studio a daily ritual. “Even if I don’t work, I go there to remain active in my space. The habit of making on a daily basis is central to all of this,” the artist notes.
In fact, it is a practice he recommends to younger artists. “Work every day and, perhaps most importantly, remain curious and excited about what you do.” Alongside this, staying nourished through reading, listening and observing helps to “build a kind of cultural baggage that will help you create. And If you have a bit of success, remain humble. This is a really important virtue.”
Main image by Bernard Polidano
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