Mellowing over t

Marika Azzopardi Following an artist’s oeuvre over time is always an interesting exercise. James Vella Clark is one Maltese artist whose work I have been observing for the past decade or so, and at his current exhibition Convergence at the MSA in lower Republic Street, I find myself closer to understanding the subtle but significant transformation of his art.

I arrive to view the exhibition on a miserably rainy day, having unfortunately missed the opening night. The painting which I see straight ahead upon entering the first gallery seems to echo the weather. In that one instant of vision however, it does not translate into a contemporary James Vella Clark. The style and colours don’t seem coherent with Vella Clark’s art as we know it today... and indeed, Winter Light with its heavily dismal grey undertones, dates back to 2011. It is one of his earlier abstracts.

Starting off in 2008 with a duo of crimson in Red Light I and Red Light II, as well as a smaller painting entitled Seeing the Light, the paintings move through the years to the very latest and largest composition entitled Dvořák dated 2019. From strident and at times violent compositions, from storm and chaos, the paintings land into a fertile sea of calming colours and placid brush strokes. Dvořák is a case in point – few local artists work on such enormous canvases and Vella Clark admits, “this is not my usual, but I found my immersion in the painting so vividly transporting, in many ways causing me to be in awe of the painting itself as it materialised. Creating it became close to a spiritual sensation and I am well inclined to repeat the experience with enthusiasm“.

The artist, who curated the exhibition himself, has prepared