New Valletta Exhibition Dares You To Look, And To Face The Consequences
Some exhibitions gently invite you in. Antler Cry, which opens today, 29th November at the National Museum of Archaeology, does the opposite.
Maltese artist Anthony Catania delivers a show that confronts you head-on, drawing its power from the ancient myth of Actaeon – the hunter punished for seeing what he shouldn’t.
But Catania isn’t retelling the story; he’s using it as a lens. Antler Cry asks what happens when we look too closely, when perception slips into transgression and when truth arrives with teeth bared.
His canvases make that question uncomfortably real. Violent strokes, dark hues and rugged textures pull you into a space where nothing is polite or decorative. Each work feels like a psychological dig and a sheer reminder that beneath our polished Maltese surfaces lies tension we rarely acknowledge.
Catania’s birthplace courses through the exhibition. Malta’s contradictions namely the sunlit calm, the baroque splendour pressed against centuries of conflict and the sacred colliding with the everyday, animate his distorted figures. You can sense Francis Bacon’s influence, but the weight, heat and gravity of the island are unmistakably Maltese.
The journey starts deceptively quiet with Whispers in the Ashen Thicket: a dog drinking from a still pool, a scene suspended in uneasy silence. Then everything breaks open.
At the heart of the exhibition is Antlered Transfiguration Under Death’s Gaze, a towering, chaotic collision of colour and motion where a man becomes a stag mid-storm.
Catania reminds us that beauty isn’t always kind and truth doesn’t always soothe. In a world of quick-scroll images, Antler Cry forces a stop. It demands attention, reflection and feeling.
Exhibition Details
The showcase will be held at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, running from 29th November to 11th January 2026. Doors are open daily from 9am to 5pm, with the exception of 19th, 24th, 25th, 31st December and 1st January 2026.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Jean Pierre Magro. Admission is free, inviting all visitors to experience the exhibition firsthand.
Tours and Meet the Artist sessions will be taking place on 6th and 13th December and on 7th January at 11am.