Existential abstraction
A preoccupation with space is what brought about this latest collection of abstract paintings by Lewis Zammit, titled Emerging Dimensions, showing at The Phoenicia, Floriana, throughout March
Lewis Zammit (b. 1971) is a Maltese art educator and artist who lives and works in Mellieħa. He is currently exhibiting a new series of abstract paintings in the Palm Court Lounge at The Phoenicia Malta.
While this exhibition (and every solo exhibition by him before this) is of abstract, nonrepresentational art, Lewis constantly draws and paints from life and nature, keeping himself in tune with the basics of art, which any art teacher and artist can not do without. Lewis Zammit has also practised anamorphic art in Mellieħa, a public type of art that requires him to work with distortions to achieve the desired perspective.
All of the exhibited paintings were executed in the last few months and years, and they are all firmly linked to questions that preoccupy Lewis. He is very much aware of the brevity of life, and how small a part us human beings are when compared to the infinite universe and the questions surrounding the possibility of an alternate universe. This is where the exhibition title stems from: Emerging Dimensions. He plays around with the idea of the immensity of space, the unknown, and that humankind is a mere speck in this continuum.
These thoughts are translated into his non-representational paintings that possess a main preoccupation with space and the contradiction between form and space. He states that “there are times when space is form and form is space; any form is part of space, and space can be any form”.
Despite this thought process, Lewis Zammit’s inspiration always stems from nature. He is one to enjoy being immersed in nature, surrounded by the sea and trees, away from other people, and enjoying the serenity that environment provides. He also often observes how nature transforms itself.
When visiting his studio, one can see objects such as corpses of a cicada or a chameleon that Lewis found in nature, and which he picked up because of the interest in the patterns of its many layers of skin and its tones, even gilding it to give it a new dimension of meaning; how something so small and perhaps unnoticeable can be given new meaning.
He is certainly an observer of all things around him, quietly contemplating on them, and eventually, these forms will reverberate in his subconscious and find their way into his compositions. I can in fact see the pattern of a cicada wing in one of his paintings, and such. Nature is always the starting point for Lewis’s paintings, and these are paintings that – like this thought process – possess many layers.
They are executed in oil on board that he primes himself intentionally, adding a lot of texture to the support. The texture will at times provide a rough surface, but at other times, the composition is smooth and gleaming. And, some paintings have a mix of both these techniques. The layers in his paintings are not just of oil glazes, but also of more solid materials.
The solidity that the priming texture provides vs the fluidity of other sections is another quandary that Lewis Zammit tries to come to terms with, and it goes hand in hand with the duality of his coming to terms with space and form.
The flowing layers present the opposite to the more solid forms in his compositions, Yet, one can notice undulating forms in these paintings, that ebb and flow across the surface. The sfumato technique is then often employed between the boundary of the two, where it blurs these boundaries creating a sense of vagueness.
His palette has a predominance of earthy and cold tones particularly blue and purple. Light is another important element in Lewis’ art with contrasts being adequately created, further emphasising the difference between form and space.
Zammit firmly believes that “art is a means of communication by which souls meet across gaps of space and time”, and that he does not need to say much about himself and his work; he lets his paintings speak for themselves and be interpreted by every individual. They are open to your interpretation.
Lewis paints for his own satisfaction. In his paintings nothing is arbitrary. They are executed after a lot of thought and meditation. In fact, one can notice that Lewis paints for himself with the distance between each of his solo exhibitions, this being his fifth solo show, with the last one being held eight years ago.
“Lewis paints for his own satisfaction. In his paintings nothing is arbitrary
Emerging Dimensions is curated by Charlene Vella and is open throughout the month of March at the Palm Court Lounge, The Phoenicia Malta, The Mall, Floriana.