The mystical beings of darkness are a constant presence in anything Anthony Catania paints. This was strikingly evident at his last exhibition way back in 2006, when through Selve Oscure he grasped the dark and morbid horror of death and the underworld in a fantastic play of dark shadows that teased and tantalised viewers into attention to peer closer and truly observe.

Without deviating too much from the basic theme, Mr Catania is now concentrating solely on one particularity that traipsed, twisted and threatened through tales of endless myth - the centaur.

Don't go expecting frivolity, colour and entertainment. This is a collection of studies where all exhibits but one, are strictly monochrome. With the use of pastels and a seemingly haphazard hand that deceivingly belies all the observation, work and intensity behind these depictions, the artist has taken on the stance of an onlooker enshrouded in semi-darkness. Observant, silent and audaciously stealthy, he has looked beyond his reality straight into the mists of time and captured the centaur in fleeting passing. Call him or it what you please - centaurus, kentaurus, half man, half horse, where man and horse become one and yet are one.

Mr Catania's drawings remind us of the cavemen's wall decorations at Lascaux, of graffiti emblazoned on stone, scribblings that defy time and space but are nonetheless real. These are half-shrouded shadings that seem unintelligible and know of nothing at first glance and surely need close observation to catch the obviously ingenuous. As a viewer you will instinctively peer, step closer, step back for some space, look away in perplexity, and then back again... until slowly, as your mind's eye acclimatises itself to the semi-darkness from which the creatures emerge, you become aware of movement, action - a presence. A bow drawn here, a twig broken there... leaves rustling in the wind... and endless movement which gallops on to the next picture.

And yet there is an uncanny feeling of dread. Much like the Homeric hymns that chant of centaurs battering man into the earth; the remembrance of wild creatures fighting the human Lapiths, or each other in a bid over food and territory. It's an unnerving hunch - but was the artist truly present in the semi-darkness, did he really see these beings? Are they real?

Mr Catania draws the centaur over and over, sighting it time and again in different lighting, different shadows, different and dissimilar and yet... this is the centaur still. Silent, but present. There is the Pan Centaur, the Apcalyptic Centaur... Finally a Chaos of Centaurs. Chaos in our mind's eye, in our line of vision, or simply in our lack of understanding?

Even before you leave this exhibition, you will become imbued with a sense that perhaps there is more in those shapes and shadows than what you really saw. Should you go back and peer closer?

• The Cave of Centaurs, an exhibition by Mr Catania is at the National Museum of Fine Arts, South Street, Valletta until October 26.

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