Charlene Vella reviews a collection of paintings that are being sold to help a worthy cause that will see a cycling challenge over 2,000km in Japan.

[attach id=364107 size="medium"]An abstract painting by Richard Saliba.[/attach]

Maltese cyclists have been training for this year’s upcoming LifeCycle Challenge which will see them cycle 2,000km in 10 days in Japan.

Through this challenge, LifeCycle creates awareness and supports patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, something it has been doing since 1999.

Although the arts are not involved in this challenge, several Maltese artists have been doing their bit. They have donated prints to be sold in aid of LifeCycle Foundation Malta in an exhibition held recently.The prints are available to view and on sale still on http://printcycle2014.wordpress.com.

The exhibition title has been cleverly coined PrintCycle. It is a collective exhibition of recent and older prints donated by 10 artists who have made a name for themselves in the local scene, and especially in the printing technique.

They are Lino Borg, Gilbert Calleja, Austin Camilleri, Pawl Carbonaro, Justin Falzon, Luciano Micallef, Richard Saliba, John Vassallo, Jesmond Vassallo and Robert Zahra.

And it is, perhaps, not a coincidence that it is indeed a collection of prints that is being sold in support of a challenge being held in Japan, as prints are synonymous with Japanese art history, albeit executed with woodblocks. The method with which the works on display were executed vary as much as they do in style.

Apart from exhibiting the artworks for sale, the exhibition was also an educational one, in that the curators included materials used in the fascinating technique of the production of prints.

The challenging technique has, nonetheless, yielded more than pleasant little works of art.

In Now Hallowed Ground for Peace, Austin Camilleri is ever his innovative and remarkable self in his distinctive piece executed in aquatint, etching, drypoint and sugarlift print with two contrasting, yet complementary, roundels.

Lino Borg focuses his attention on the human form. His mastery of the medium could not have been better exemplified than in his Standing Nude of c. 1980, in which the female nude is set in a dark room that envelopes her, where her flesh is in fact the support or paper, with a few sinuous lines making up her contours.

The method of execution varies as much as the style

Two portraits are the subject of John Vassallo’s prints that allow the viewer to hone in on the sitter’s state of mind.

The ever enigmatic Justin Falzon has donated his powerful and intricately executed Invidia and Parting I, which do not fail to leave a lasting impression.

Gilbert Calleja’s Trees also plays on the dichotomy of the ink versus the bare paper in what is a pleasing composition.

The same mood exudes from Robert Zahra’s two etchings and aquatints from the Metropolis 2009 series.

Pawl Carbonaro’s unique touch could not go amiss in a collection of prints. His two colour prints of foreign landscapes adequately master the use of light touching the townscapes and enveloped in surrounding coloured hills and sea.

Jesmond Vassallo’s dreamy Water Lilies and his Vilnius seem to recreate a dreamt-up world, and add a fanciful burst of colour to the exhibition.

This bright palette reappears with Luciano Micallef, who is represented by pleasantly colourf prints of streetscapes that date back to the 1980s.

Micallef’s hard edges come as a contrast to Richard Saliba’s two soft and romantic wax aquatint abstract prints.

This beautiful exhibition surely helps to increase our opinion of these artists and their work can increase the value of anyone collection and help make someone’s life that much more comfortable to live.

A great well done to all involved for their lovely gesture.