A photographic exhibition of 56 works by Mary Attard is open at the Cavalieri Hotel, St Julian’s until September 18.

The exhibition, entitled Serenity, includes photography, mobile phone photography, photograms, collages, soft pastel, montages and assemblages and represents Attard’s artistic career since the early 1970s.

According to art critic E.V. Borg, who is curating the exhibition, “Attard is not a commercial artist. She creates for her own satisfaction and to communicate with the world at large. The artist refers to her camera as a ‘spiritual tool’.

Her expression is poetic, lyrical and so particularly nostalgic for the cult of beauty that it becomes highly evocative with a felt romanticism and a rich, genuine, gentle and noble sentimentality. Attard is inspired by Mother Nature, whose spell overwhelms her.”

In 1975 Attard discovered the fascination of photography after acquiring a Browning Kodak box camera. She attended classes at the Malta Photographic Society inValletta under the tuition of a retired Englishman, Charles Herbert.

In 1986-87 she attended a diploma course in photojournalism at the London College of Printing, after which she was employed for a year with a picture agency.

She held her first personal exhibition at the Gozo Ministry Hall in Victoria in September 1997 and received a Special Commendation in Photography at the Malta International Art Biennale of 1999.

In May 2010, she participated in a collective art exhibition at the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in Valletta. Last April she was invited by the Art Discussion Group to its ‘Meet the Artist’ activity while concurrently holding a personal exhibition at theIntercontinental Hotel, St Julian’s.