An exhibition of abstract oil paintings by Anthony Spagnol is currently on at the Parliament building in Valletta.

Titled Imaging Spirit or Suret l-Ispirtu, the artist’s latest exhibition features large canvases which reflect his personal search for the sacred.

They were produced over three years.

Mr Spagnol, who has held various personal and collective exhibitions, started his career as a figurative artist but then shifted towards abstraction, which he considers a highly spiritual language.

Exhibition curator Anthony de Giovanni says that painting for Mr Spagnol is “a ritual that starts with contemplation”.

Anthony Spagnol

“A sacred theme sparks off the process… as a poet jots down words and ideas on paper as they come to mind, Spagnol puts to canvas images as they evolve in his inward self,” he writes in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to contemplate quietly and try to catch the sacred inherent in each painting.

The exhibition, held under the patronage of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, runs until tomorrow.