Gabriel Caruana: Public – Play – Private
A lively, generous survey of an artist who refused to keep art in its place — ceramics, painted wood, reliefs and archival material come together at the VP Gallery to show Gabriel Caruana as a maker of encounters.
Gabriel Caruana: Public – Play – Private is a lively, generous survey of an artist who refused to keep art in its place. At the wonderful VP Gallery in Valletta, we are treated to a broad panoply of works and indeed media. Ceramics, painted wood, mixed-media painting, reliefs, archival photographs and documentation come together to show Caruana not merely as a studio artist, but as a maker of encounters. Someone who carried a bold colour palette, almost childish humour and, as shown in this exhibition, public participation, out of the studio and into Malta's squares, beaches, schools and even carnival routes.
The exhibition's central strength is this sheer material variety. Caruana's ceramics dominate in spirit: hand-modelled, rough-surfaced, glazed in yellows, reds, blues and greens that seem drawn from festa decorations and sun-baked Maltese earth. Around them are painted wooden figures, sculptural totems, textured reliefs and mixed-media works whose surfaces feel scraped, layered and improvised. The curators also include photography and archival material, making clear that Caruana's public installations and community projects were not peripheral to his art but fundamental to it. Is there some sort of political agenda here?
That breadth is entirely fitting. Caruana began with electrical work, parish feast lighting and carnival floats before becoming one of Malta's leading modern artists, and the exhibition captures how those popular, communal forms fed into his fine-art practice. His work has the brightness of a village feast, the crude energy of a carnival float, and the ancient, almost geological, texture of the island's prehistoric sites. Yet it never feels merely decorative. The apparent simplicity is a strategy: colour, scale, humour and tactile material lower the barriers between viewer and artwork.
The title's three terms give the show a convincing structure. "Public" evokes Caruana's installations and his belief that art belongs in shared space; "play" describes both his formal language and his invitation to touch, rearrange and imagine; "private" leads the visitor toward the quieter, more introspective works. The transition is well handled. Early, extroverted pieces give way to objects that feel more personal and contemplative, without losing their physical immediacy.
One irritation, however, is hard to ignore: so many works are untitled. In an exhibition so concerned with access, communication and public engagement, the absence of titles can feel strangely withholding. A viewer may respond strongly to a ceramic face, a painted wooden construction or a relief, yet be left without even a provisional phrase to anchor the experience. Titles would not explain the work away; they would offer a useful point of entry, especially for visitors less familiar with Caruana's career.
Some pieces seem 'otherworldly', and yet familiar — such as "On and Off". Is it purely alien, or reminiscent of children's giraffe toys. But it is hard to pick out highlights to include when so many are "untitled" such as a piece of painted ceramic and asbestos pipe.
It is a small artist frustration in an otherwise welcoming exhibition. Happily, the gallery itself exhibits the work exceptionally well. The VP Gallery's spaces allow dense, tactile objects room to breathe, while the sequencing encourages movement from communal exuberance to private reflection. A soundscape by Chris Galea further supports the exhibition's themes without overwhelming the visual experience. The display also benefits from its collaboration with Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and the Gabriel Caruana Foundation, which helps situate individual works within a wider artistic and social history. Many private collections have lent pieces, some of course unnamed, but the lenders include HSBC Malta, the University of Malta Valletta Campus, The Philomonic Mnarja Society in Gozo.
Ultimately, Public – Play – Private succeeds because it presents Caruana as both exuberant and serious. His art is joyous, but its joy has purpose: it insists that art can be public, participatory and rooted in everyday Maltese life. Despite the maddening abundance of untitled works, this is an affectionate, visually rich and thoughtfully staged tribute to one of Malta's most influential modern artists.
