Luciano Micallef is the sixth child of Guzeppi and
Kika Micallef, born on the 1st November 1954 in Birkirkara. As he
said, he was always gazed and fascinated by the yellow of the delis, the blue
of the stroke, the golden yellow of the marigold and the red of the carnations
of color.
Luciano first started painting when he was nine
years old and boasted of a wonderful collection at his parent’s home which he
had made. In his work, Luciano shows a variety of paintings, that as a man
shows many expressions of what is going inside him, and through his life, to
show and create an argument between the viewer and the painting itself. Taking
a brief look at the portfolio of this Maltese artist, one can tell that he
expresses himself from different styles of painting by showing portraits of
different people, human figures (mostly nudes) and abstract art by using unusual
materials, such as waste materials which he collected from the garbage. Apart
from painting on canvas, the artist shows his interest in a collection of
fourteen sets of Malta postage stamps that he had designed between 1984 and
1996, Murals, and even Structures combining different materials. The influence
of Micallef began in 1986 by committing himself to the abstract language.
Luciano’s
work has been inspired from the first half of the 20th
Century, which were; Cubism and Abstraction that was organised by two artist of
that time, Pablo Picasso and George Braque. By looking at the work of these two
artists, one can tell that Luciano Micallef had been influenced by their work.
The
influence that Luciano took from this period of the 20th Century
lead him to create and make interesting works by using and combing different
types of materials and techniques, with different type of metal such as copper
and stainless steel that are corroding by putting acids on them so as to create
an artistic effect. These types of techniques are shown in many reliefs that he
produced such as; And Life is About Death Too, Slow Down To Save The World,
and Tolerance
is the answer.
 |
Slow Down To Save The World, stainless steel / Plastic on
wood, 80x80 cm, Luciano Micallef,2001 |
 |
And Life Is About Death Too. Stainless steel / plastic
on wood, 80x80 cm, Luciano Micallef, 2001 |
 |
Tolerance Is The Answer, copper / stainless
steel on wood, 60x80 cm,
Luciano Micallef, 2001 |
These three art pieces which I have, chosen are made
with the same technique, that of; using copper, stainless steel sheets
and wood. Starting from painting the wood, for it to be used as a base then by
using the stainless steel, Micallef creates a movement and to do so he used an
acid or a liquid to create these types of coloured patches on the metal and
finally adding a copper rod to decor it. When looking at this type of art piece,
one can observe that the artist is using formal elements, such as Line to give a direction in the way
that the metal folds and the copper rod are placed, moreover, a combination of Colour and Textures had been used to show contrast between the background and
the stainless steel. Luciano has an extension of abstraction that can also be
seen through some sculptural pieces that he worked on but as he says, he
considers himself as a painter not as a sculptor.
Reference....
- Emmanuel Fiorention 2006, Luciano Micallef, Midsea Books Ltd, Bank of Valletta plc,
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