NEW YORK CITY–FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Under the Maltese Sun
Hugo Galerie – Madison
Featuring Ġoxwa
15 December 2022–26 January 2023

    

HUGO GALERIE is pleased to present Under the Maltese Sun, a solo exhibition of the living, breathing frescos of Ġoxwa. The artist takes the beauty and historicity of frescos and gives them a pulse.

Ġoxwa’s artistic process of choice is encaustic, a technical and taxing technique that combines hot wax and oil paint on canvas or board. The textured and layered material characteristics of encaustic painting are shared with frescos. The artist’s pieces could very well be mistaken for wall fragments lifted from ancient reliefs. Even their subject matter—portraits, landscapes, the occasional ruin or flower—are classical in nature. Except… there is that pulse to contend with.

The blushed cheeks of her lithe figures. The rippling summer waters that lap worn walls and shores. The breeze that filters through foliage. The birdsong. A glow moves across each work like it is imbued in the piece itself, as if each contains its own rising and setting sun that our own merely ignites and amplifies. Her commitment to emotion and ability to express fleeting feelings supersede any preoccupation with concrete reality. Ġoxwa overcomes the stillness of stone. Her art is timeless because it has escaped time. It is unrestricted by chronology. It is a living tradition. If walls could speak, hers would.

And they would speak of Malta. The small, Mediterranean island is more than just the origin of the artist—it is the origin of her light. The warmth and radiance emanating from Ġoxwa’s works hail from Malta. Her sculptural paintings reverberate with the luster of Malta’s limestone walls. The Maltese sun beckons everything into the spotlight, endowing figures and facades with showstopping prominence. Faces become rosy and petals unfurl in the comfort of its affection. Ancient structures swell with life and humble floral arrangements gain distinction. And it is all happening now.

Like snow globes contain ever-present worlds, her works capture moments in time shimmering with the sunshine of an endless summer. Inspired by what is mythical and historic, Ġoxwa energizes the past with a contemporary current, a humanitarian heartbeat, an irrepressible voice. We observe a fresco. But Ġoxwa’s art interrupts us. In a world where tradition seems to be slipping, she has kept it alive by giving it life.

HUGO GALERIE is a fine art gallery in New York City specializing in contemporary figurative painting and sculpture. The gallery represents an international roster of artists working in a variety of media and range of genres. Please direct inquiries to info@hugogalerie.com.

La Parfumeuse, oil and wax on canvas, 39½” x 39½” (100 x 100cm)
Bouquet of Flower, oil and wax on canvas, 21½” x 18″ (55 x 46cm)
Pilgrimage, oil and wax on canvas, 39½” x 39½” (100 x 100cm)

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