Santa Muerte

When it comes to art, I am very much of the Pablo Picasso school of thinking when he poetically stated: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. And if I had any dust in my soul, it was definitely spring cleaned after visiting Anton Abela’s show.

Employing and experimenting with different forms and media, Invecreart is Abela’s fifth solo exhibition since he hit the art scene in 2007 and it is by far his biggest and most varied yet, with the common subject of otherworldliness imbuing the numerous pieces presented.

Despite the well-worn connotations attached to the concept of ‘the other side’, Abela is quick to point out that to him, “this may be the other side of the mind, another line of reality from a distant parallel-universe, the other side of an old faded photograph where you might even have the subject looking at itself in the present, or even the other side of the soul”.

Abela also clearly has a love for that which some people may consider to be the macabre and loves turning that which most people may consider ugly into something else as he believes that “not every flower blossoms perfectly; the basic human drives and impulses, together with nightmares, can provide a deep inspiration that will lead to some harsh, shocking and strong artworks”.

Building on what motivated his first solo exhibition, Abela “learnt from philosophers’ writings that there are plenty of different dreams that upon analysis are universal”.

“These dreams and the psyche, do contribute to the creation of art, it’s the rational with the irrational, the natural and the unnatural, the real and the imaginative”.

Indeed, one cannot get away from the haunting dreamlike quality of many of his pieces: black funerary stone bearing faintly legible etchings jostle for place next to polymer clay hearts surrounded by jewels to represent how bountiful the heart which keeps giving can be.

My own personal favourites, clearly inspired by Mexican art, were the Santa Muerte – a beautiful bright blue depiction of what appears to be Mary the Mother of God complete with skeletal face and hands and beautiful aluminum headdress and heart shaped charms.

Equally stunning and covetable is his play on the traditional china doll. Guaranteed to give the toughest child nightmares, this beautiful madam called Olivienne is styled on La Calavera Catrina.

One cannot get away from the haunting dreamlike quality of many of his pieces

This is the elegant skull which famous Mexican printmaker, cartoon illustrator and lithographer, José Guadalupe Posada first etched in the early 20th century for satirical purposes as a covert dig at the Mexican natives who he felt had abandoned their own culture and were embracing European aristocratic traditions in the pre-revolutionary era.

Originally depicted with a hat befitting of the upper classes of the time, La Catarina evolved into the symbol of Death in Mexico and it has become a commonplace sighting to see her embodied as part of the celebrations of Day of the Dead throughout the country. IT has also become a source of inspiration for many an artist who love dabbling in handcrafts made from clay or other materials.

Hatless though she was, Abela’s Olivienne is no less stunning and her lace peach dress was beautifully set off by the aluminum and artificial gem neck and hair pieces and her exquisitely painted face.

This amalgamation of old and new through the procurement of various media and traditions and a refusal to be limited to one genre or style of work is the cornerstone of Abela’s work and his self-proclaimed mantra:

“I do feel that I am compelled to create. This means that various media are brought together to create different mesmerising effects and I do use a range of bases which could be anything from chopping boards to Perspex to textured paper to mosaic tiles to parquet.

“There is so much one can do, that I want to do it all. I constantly shift to and fro from different styles (from realism to semi-abstraction), media (pencil to digital) and also use different techniques (impasto to mixed-media) so as to always produce a striking and unique creation each and every time.”

Even the title of the show itself is a compound of a trifecta of words as Invecreart makes use of the concepts of inversion: the particular style that the artist introduced to the local visual art scene in 2007, creativity: the thought process and the innovation within the executed work and art: the actual artistic outputs which are exhibited.

For Abela every piece of art is a journey into himself to find that which is elusive and otherworldly, imbuing his work with an opaque mystery that will have people delving deeper into his works and themselves.

Invecreart runs at the Cavalieri Art Hotel, St Julian’s until Saturday.