Christmas is a time for spending. Which might explain why there were some 25 temporary exhibitions listed in last week’s cultural calendar.

How many of them are worth viewing? I wonder. But, I’ll let you be the judge of that. What I can say is that very few of these shows tickled my fancy and actually made me journey – more often than not, down the road, or around the corner – to view the works. Pity, I know.

That was decidedly not the case with Austin Camilleri’s exhibition. Currently on show at the Malta Contemporary Art Foundation (MCA) located within the upper galleries of St James Cavalier, Mr Camilleri is the first Maltese visual artist to be given a solo show (apart from MCA director Mark Mangion’s solo show in March 2009) at the foundation ever since its inception in 2008. What is even more significant is that the foundation is hosting a collection of paintings. Which again, is a definitive first.

This might not mean much to readers, but to those who have been religiously following the MCA’s events and history, this is especially significant, as to date, the found-ation has largely featured multimedia installation shows – which many viewers seem to have a problem relating to or making heads and tails of.

Conceptual art is not for everyone. Then again, neither are Mr Camilleri’s paintings. His work is not easy to grasp nor would your average Joe find them particularly aesthetically appealing. Yet they are some of the best paintings to go on show at St James Cavalier in a long while. And for once I must confess and reveal a sheer and utter sense of subjectivity. Because I do love Mr Camilleri’s work. It’s raw, crude and real. It gives me what I can only describe as an adrenaline rush: It’s the kind of art you simply can’t get enough of. And it has found its home on the white gallery walls of St James Cavalier.

Having already previewed the work in the artist’s studio, the ample paintings can breathe at St James. They actually breathe life into the historic walls meant to fight off enemies and foes which have withstood the tests of time. It was high time that Austin Camilleri be given a solo show in Malta especially since all his recent activity has been focused abroad.

Far from being non-represent-ational or downright abstract, his paintings combine such an overwhelming selection and combin-ation of elements, that the analysis and dissection of a single painting would prove near impossible. So much so that each viewing is a revelation, a discovery of a portion that went amiss during the first, second or third viewing.

Ten works of a fairly large dimension command the viewers’ attention across each of the three galleries. The paintings possess a vibrant and fervent life beneath their surface – a visual testimony to the artistic journey.

Those familiar with Mr Camilleri’s work will recognise a number of familiar elements and references. Some are pertinent to his own work – such as his Kuruna and the copious visions of babies; while others speak of history and identity such as the crosses, crucifixes, random symbols of popular culture and pornography. It’s all there. Playing hide and seek with viewers who often can’t see past the end of their nose, or perhaps simply refuse to.

His work is a painted social commentary; which is no easy feat to acheive, unless one is resorting to or utilising street or graffiti art as an overt medium of communication. Interestingly however, Mr Camilleri uses self-made stencils, stickers, collagework, scratching, typography and more to “animate” his surfaces. All these elements work together, alongside highly painterly forms of naked, headless women, portraits of masters and those of Pontiffs and prelates. The range and spectrum of motifs at play is all at once extra-ordinary to behold.

There is also a physicality which transpires through this body of work. Mr Camilleri seems to have poured his emotions on each of the surfaces. Yet his paintings are no love letters: they are void of any nicities, romance or idealism. Each work is a regurgitation: the dispelling of an unknowing weight. Layers upon layers of complexities, or frivolities which have somehow impacted his life and being.

Mr Camilleri’s paintings are moreover re-worked pieces. His final products are an assimilation and a coexistence of forms, meaning that the multitude of visible surface layers reflect an Austin-through-the-ages. His reworkings and manipulation of “old” canvases are an acknowledgement of his past and a welcoming of the present. He does not discard; he does not regret. He selects.

We need more shows of this calibre and standard in Malta. I for one am getting rather tired of all the land and seascapes. We need daring; we need brash, bold and a touch of the burlesque. We need a “product” which is worth exporting, a product worthy of the creative economy and the European Capital of Culture. Austin Camilleri fits the bill. There are other Maltese artists and creatives who could easily rise to the occasion, yet I don’t see their work featured at the MCA. Pity, I know.

• MCA 16: Austin Camilleri is showing at the Malta Contemporary Art Foundation, upper galleries St James Cavalier until January 2.