Long white shadows. Funny how the image shadows conjure in the mind’s eye is of dark, elongated or slightly fuzzy silhouettes which tend to follow or precede us accordingly.
Shadows are the consequence of concealed portions of light; eternally interdependent; one feeding on the other. Yet they are simply shapes, forms, intangibles comprising positive and negative spaces. Peter Pan, the boy-who-never-wanted-to-grow-up, was fascinated with recapturing his shadow, and when and where the visual arts are concerned, creatives are all a little concerned with capturing life and nature’s many shadows – literal or metaphoric.
It’s these shadows which draw me in as I walk into Pawl Carbonaro’s gallery in Gozo. Although there are paintings propped neatly against the walls, others hanging or strewn across a variety of surfaces, my eye darts to a smallish work representing a night scene in an obscure foreign cityscape. A dark winding road, broken by quasi menacing, quasi phallic “shadows of light” remind me of Giorgio de Chirico, although associations with the Italian surrealist are subjective rather than stylistic. The work’s title: Trulli (Corsica).
In fact, most of the paintings’ titles are obscure names of small towns and villages dotted around the Mediterranean, which I fail to recognise. Besides Corsica – which is one of Pawl’s many haunts – Puglia and Sicily feature prominently. The names however intrigue me: Nebrodi, Savoca, Bronte, Balagne... the resultant often rough and rugged representation of such spaces and places, even more so.
Yet, I don’t just happen to be in Gozo. Pawl’s upcoming expo titled Sud, at Opus64 Galerie has lured me to the sister island for a sneak preview.
Pawl is a reserved man. He sits at his pointed wooden throne, cigar in hand, mulling every word said, asked; he drifts off to another place, another time – seemingly tapping into the picture and memory bank collected through journey, travel and experience.
He does not need to say much; his paintings generally do the talking. There, conversation always flows; words are incisive, memorable. “I cannot explain; I cannot put words to my works”, and certainly, this is why he paints. “Painting keeps me young”; it’s his elixir. Pawl’s painting is a clear product of gesture. Were the term action painting not intimately linked to Jackson Pollock and his idiom, I would then be tempted to use this “description” in relation to Pawl’s work. There is a palpable and apparent physicality embedded in the layers of his paintings that goes beyond balance, colour or composition. I look hard and long enough at one of the abstracted works hanging on the wall, and I can almost see the “manual labour” involved in its creation. This expression is what pulls viewers in; this expression is what keeps them there.
Pawl’s artistic core lies in abstraction. Indicating one of the paintings closest to him, he says: “I couldn’t create this landscape were I not an abstractionist. It’s part of the cycle.” He admits that subject matter is not his primary concern, but rather an excuse.
“I search and travel, I look for angles, corners which give me the visuals necessary... Subject matter merely gives you the opportunity to create.” While naming one of his works, he reinforces this notion: “this is paint for the sake of paint”.
Although Pawl is a highly prolific painter, he hasn’t had a solo show in Malta in quite a while. Nine years to be precise. Not since his Bank of Valletta retrospective show in 2002 has Pawl flown solo. So this exhibition is significant, and I cannot help but marvel somewhat at Angela Tabone’s (Opus64 Galerie owner and director) powers of persuasion.
Nevertheless, that is not to say that Pawl hasn’t been active on the exhibition front. Over the past few years, he has shown his work alongside Anton Grech, Austin Camilleri, John Grima and Vince Briffa at the 2008 Scent exhibition held at St John’s Cavalier; he was half of the duo whose works featured in a prestigious show in Munich, titled Camilleri/Carbonaro in 2009 (subsequently also shown at the National Museum of Fine Arts); and most recently, he showed a series of etchings and aquatints at Art..e Gallery in Victoria.
So, I think it is fair to say that there was some anticipation for this show... Sud is being inaugurated tonight and will open to the public as from tomorrow.
• Sud is showing at Opus 64 Galerie, Tigné Street, Sliema. Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 10.30 a.m. till 1 p.m. and from 4.30 till 7 p.m.; Saturdays from 10.30 a.m. till 1 p.m. Sundays, public holidays and other hours, by appointment.
www.opus64galerie.com