Melħ: Tina Mifsud Launches New Collection Of Artworks Inspired By Għar Lapsi
Maltese painter Tina Mifsud has just launched an exhibition featuring a collection of artworks inspired by Malta’s waters – specifically the crystal waters of Għar Lapsi.
The exhibition kicked off on Thursday at the Phoenicia hotel in Valletta, and is open for visitors for an entire month.
Melħ (2023) is Tina Mifsud’s 5th solo exhibition and is preceded by Plajja 2018, Point of You 2021, The Rainforest 2022 and Crux 2023.
“A white crystalline substance that gives the sea its characteristic taste. It enhances; it lifts the flavours of food and makes your hair look great after it dries in the sun. Beautiful bodies rippling in underwater light mesmerise and the burdens of the world float away in slow motion,” Tina writes in the artist statement.
“The salt that accumulates on your skin after a long swim is nostalgia in physical form. Crackling against the fabric of your clothes, it’s a feeling every Mediterranean child connects with: one of life’s simple pleasures.”
“Salt preserves things. Sardines, olives, ripe Maltese tomatoes, and memories of childhood – uncomplicated days wasted in pure sun kissed bliss, floating around in the sea with your nanniet.”
Tina Mifsud began the Melħ series of paintings during visits to Għar Lapsi in 2022. Chatting to the locals and taking photos of them, her excursions slowly developed into a body of work which celebrates bodies of all shapes and sizes.
Characterised by loose, confident brushwork and open compositions, these paintings exist in admiration of the simple pleasures of a Maltese summer, unselfconsciously enjoyed by an older generation whose activities have come to define an earlier Malta.
As Mifsud’s aunty Sharon often says, “we don’t have much green here in Malta, but we have an abundance of blue”. Melħ follows the rhythm of Maltese summers and the cathartic effect of warm seas. It looks for fun and lightheartedness within a new reality which is often filled with anxiety and negativity.
For this reason, the Melħ collection, curated by Dr Charlene Vella, has been playfully placed in The Phoenicia Malta Palm Court Lounge, to be enjoyed by holidaymakers of all generations.
Tina Mifsud (b.1994) is a Maltese Artist whose work is characterised by personal and confessional themes. Her work moves across figuration and abstraction, marked by confident and distinctive brushstrokes.
Her process involves thorough documentation which she then translates onto canvas. She is a self-taught artist; after a BA in tourism studies she spent two years living in Barcelona, sharing a studio with international artists and honing her painterly abilities.
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