DOUBLE PAGE PREVIEW OF 'GROTTO GIRL' BY DR LOUIS LAGANÀ - SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA - 1 JUNE 2025

Double wow! ✨ A double-page preview of my artist residency, community outreach project, and upcoming exhibition ‘Grotto Girl’ has just been featured in the Sunday Times of Malta - beautifully written by the insightful Dr Louis Laganà (Lough) who seems to have adopted an incredible appreciation of my work 🙏

I had no idea it had come out - and just ahead of my exhibition opening at MUŻA Valletta #Heritagemalta I’m ever so grateful for this incredible, thoughtful, and thought-provoking reflection on my work and practice ❤️🇲🇹❤️

Please join me for the opening on June 11 at 6:30pm at MUŻA, with the inauguration to be opened by:

🇲🇹Mr Owen Bonnici – Minister for Culture, Lands, and Local Government @bonnicio

🇲🇹🇦🇺His Excellency Mr Matt Skelly – High Commissioner of Australia in Malta

🇲🇹 Dr Louis Laganà – Art historian, critic, and curator.

Feeling honoured, excited, and deeply thankful. 💙

Heartfelt gratitude to my dear friend for his impeccable art documentation and 📸 Henry Zammit Cordina @henryzammitcordina

And a warm thank you to 🙏❤️🇲🇹 The Sunday Times of Malta and Arts and Culture editor Lara Zammit
Thank you again Dr Louis Laganà for delivering an amazing insight into my work and creativity, I’m completely humbled by your passion about it and feeling very grateful.

Dr Laganà is a highly respected art historian, critic, curator, and practicing artist. He earned his PhD in Art History (Modern and Contemporary Art) from Loughborough University in the UK, and currently serves as Associate Professor at the University of Malta @ummalta within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. His research and teaching span Modern and Contemporary Art History, Visual Culture, Psychoanalysis and Art, The Arts and Wellbeing, and more.

Dr Laganà is also a prolific writer. His literary contributions include the three-volume series “Two Generations of Maltese Artistic Families” (2014–2016) and the co-authored book “Psychology and the Arts: Perceptions and Perspectives” with Professor Carmel Cefai. He has contributed extensively to academic journals, exhibition catalogues, and newspapers, helping to shape discourse around art and culture in Malta and beyond.


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1 June 2025 The Sunday Times of Malta

'SHADOW SANCTUARY' - DEBUT INTERNATIONAL SOLO - MARIE GALLERY5 MALTA

Very pleased to announce I’ll be having my debut international solo exhibition ‘Shadow Sanctuary’ with the lovely Maria Galea Gallery owner and Art Advisor of Marie Gallery5 in Sliema Malta opening 3rd Nov 7.30pm. Please feel free to come along.

Maria is a passionate advocate for artists and unstoppable force in the Arts industry in Malta/Europe representing Maltese and international talent. As a Maltese Australian artist I’m super excited and proud to be working with her and looking forward to my upcoming exhibition soon.

…”Just as the the moon needs the sun to reflect light, I need the moon to cast my shadow."…

Louisa Chircop

'Shadow Sanctuary' by Louisa Chircop invites viewers on an evocative journey into the profound depths of the artist's conceptual realm. Chircop's oeuvre is a contemplative fusion of personal experiences, art history, and the intricate tapestry of psychological phenomena. Within this exhibition, each artwork serves as a portal, unlocking the enigmatic "shadows of the self," as guided by Chircop's subconscious wanderings within her inner sanctum, intimately intertwined with her Maltese Australian heritage.

Chircop's artistic inquiry transcends conventional boundaries, daring to explore the intricate facets of the human condition-pain, pleasure, guilt, and shame. Her exploration delves into an innovative interpretation of religious sexuality, an intersection where the sacred and the profane merge to construct a deeply personal tantra. This fusion is a vibrant celebration of the terrestrial, the cosmic, and the spiritual-a form of contemporary self-devotion that venerates the Earth, the universe, and spirituality. Amidst the encompassing corporeal darkness, fragments of illumination emerge, unveiling metamorphosed, reinvented, hybrid, and reborn iterations of the artist herself. This creative rebirth finds its genesis in Chircop's immigrant European lineage, rooted in the resolute traditions of medieval antiquity.

3rd - 22nd November @mariegallery5
For more information


#contemporaryart #exhibition #artreel #exhibitionposter #austrailanart #artsydney #malta #gallery #collector #internationalartist #malteseaustralianartist