Bold And Compelling, This Maltese Artist Captures The Process Of Rediscovery In New Solo Exhibition
Art and music often go hand-in-hand when it comes to getting the creative juices flowing. Both mediums allow artists to express themselves and create vibrant, compelling pieces.
One Maltese artist has crossed the boundary between music and painting, to create a vibrant, bold narrative of meaning and emotion in his first solo exhibition: Midlife Crisis.
Based in Berlin, Daniel Borg is an emerging, self-taught artist who has been refining and developing his studio-based practice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Known for his musical work with groups such as Skimmed, The Velts, Fastidiu and Superlove, the pandemic allowed Borg to take a break from music and instead delve into painting.
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“I started painting during covid times,” Borg told Lovin Malta. “I started uploading these paintings to my band’s social media accounts and interest from the audience kept growing with every upload”.
He went on to explain that he was then chosen by The Mill, an art, culture and crafts centre in Birkirkara, to hold his first solo exhibition as part of their SPRING Artistic Programme for up-and-coming artists, which aims to support artists in a variety of ways like hosting exhibitions.
Having previously had his work displayed as part of the INDOORS collective exhibition at Desko (2020) alongside showing his work in Berlin, Borg creates an element of disjointedness and nostalgia that perfectly captures the emotions everyone experienced throughout the pandemic.
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Through Midlife Crisis, curator Elyse Tonna has highlighted that the selected body of work offers an “introspective exhibition which shifts focus from extraordinary realities to ordinary experiences through an entire exploration of the self”.
“In the context of a midlife crisis, [it] brings to the forefront the artist’s concern with age vis-à-vis artistic production,” she explains. “The exhibition conveys an amalgamation of consequences following a process of rediscovery.”
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Asked about his artistic journey so far, Borg told Artz ID that he has been exposed to painting and music from a young age.
“I remember going to my grandmother’s house, which was full of my uncle’s paintings – Carm Borg. I used to stare at them for a really long time and was fascinated by the fact that a picture can be made of strokes of paint.”
He further explained that while he was into drawing from a young age, he stopped it eventually due to the feeling that “redrawing the same thing did not give the same feeling like drawing something the first time round”.
As such, from the age of 15, Borg focused on playing the guitar and kept on doing music. Yet, music still influenced him visually, with Borg noting that there is no “better lesson in artistic composition” than looking at the art of album covers.
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From his background, Borg is able to draw inspiration from a lot of other art forms. While music is a big contributor, he explains that music also plays a big factor when it comes to inspiration.
“My constant, number one rule when it comes to painting is the intensification of life, I often ask myself the question: ‘how can I get the maximum emotion on these four corners that make up the rectangle in front of me’,” he explained.
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In his painting, Borg also aims to not know how to paint something before he actually starts painting – thus, creating an experimental yet ultra-creative work with each stroke of his brush.
Midlife Crisis is available for viewing from 3rd July until 29th July 2021 at The Mill.
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