Debbie Caruana Dingli’s artistic career takes centre stage in the 23rd BOV Retrospective Art Exhibition. Hosted at BOV Centre, Santa Venera, the exhibition features 37 pieces that show different phases in the artist’s development. It is open until July 31.

How does it feel to see 30 years of your artistic career in one exhibition?

I feel very fortunate to be able to show my work in this manner. A whole team of people were involved.

I could not have had a more talented curator or photo-grapher. As a result, the catalogue is of such a high standard. This was a perfect way to celebrate my 30 years of painting in the public eye.

This exhibition shows two sides of Debbie Caruana Dingli that we rarely see side by side – the portraits which expose raw emotions on the one hand and the caricatures where you poke fun at our society – how do you coincide these two facets?

The portraits are an extension of my fascination with people and what makes them tick. The cartoons are also very much in the same vein. Yet, the latter is where I usually manage to deliver a message, me at my most serious, if you like. I would not say that they are poking fun at our society, they are more often than not introspective, sometimes an observation or a protest.

You have three sons. Has motherhood impacted on your art in any way?

For a long time after my sons were born, I saw the world through their insect loving, skull collecting eyes. Their fascination with nature reawakened mine. Every outing was laced with looking out for skulls and carcasses to take home to their ‘Natural History Museum’. The more meaty ones were left on the roof to dry out. What fun that was. I have not got out of the habit yet. I am sure that I looked at art through their eyes as well.

If you had to meet the 23-year-old Debbie about to set up her first exhibition, what advice would you give her?

I would probably suggest that she uses a smaller signature. I would also let her know that she will never be able to please everyone all of the time, so she might as well paint to please herself. I learnt this quite early on and it has been my maxim ever since.

Fear, oil on canvas.

Among the pieces currently exhibited, which is the one that means most to you and why?

It is the watercolour Jumpers at Wied iż-Żurrieq, painted in 2007. I like the colours and the way it is painted. It’s a one-off.

How did you manage to condense 30 years of an artist’s life into 37 pieces?

I had the hardest time sifting through Debbie’s work and trying to pare down her really prolific output to a mere 37 works.

The quality of her work is so remarkably high and so consistent that it wasn’t a question of selecting the best paintings that she’s ever done, because those run into hundreds, but of choosing the ones that were most representative of her different styles and which best showed the different facets and extent of Debbie’s work.

Kim, oil on canvas.

How is the exhibition structured?

I chose to display the works in thematic rather than in strict chronological order, which might appear unusual for a retrospective exhibition but I felt that it gave the viewer a better grasp on Debbie’s art.

I tried to create three different spaces, grouping together her earlier watercolour genre scenes with her animal portraits, in the second space I created a portrait gallery of her (mostly) commissioned portraits in watercolour.

These are perhaps the most recognisable of Debbie’s works and the ones the man-in-the-street immediately associates with Debbie’s style. In the third space I grouped her cartoons – contrasting the deeply introspective, with others that comment on society and make fun of its quirks and excesses.

We managed to reproduce Debbie’s exuberant sketches onto Perspex panels which divide up the spaces. The climax of the exhibition is three oil portraits painted during studio sessions from life where the work is not commissioned and Debbie is at her freest.

You are both the curator of the exhibition but also a dear friend of the artist. To what extent is it a plus or a minus knowing the artist whose work you are curating so well?

I think it is a great advantage in the sense that I have been observing her work for many years.

I’ve watched her paint – there is a peculiar form of magic which occurs when a blank canvas is transformed into a beautiful painted image – and, perhaps most importantly, I can discuss her art with her and really get a feeling for what work is most relevant to her as an artist.

My job as curator is to turn this knowledge into a good, well-matched selection of paintings which tells the story of Debbie’s art to the viewer, whether he knows Debbie or not.

The exhibition is open until July 31 at the BOV Centre in Santa Venera.