Gabriel Caruana (1929-2018) was a Maltese artist, an icon of modern art on the island. A pioneer always seeking curiosity, risk and error. A tireless traveller, devoted to ceramics and Faenza, Italy, which he considered his second hometown.

Over the years, in fact, Caruana participated in various editions of the Premio Faenza and developed projects with Muky and Matteucci, or as he liked to call them “amici cari”. Since the 1980s, Bonne Ten Kate, another close friend of Caruana’s, started documenting Caruana’s long artistic career.

The Amici Cari exhibition celebrates these friendships at The Mill, established by Caruana and home to the foundation that bears his name, and which has the mission of encouraging contemporary art and creativity. A destiny that crosses Caruana and Muky’s path (1926 – 2022), who has generously donated her property to the City of Faenza to support artist residencies and the enhancement of ceramic art and culture.

Inside The Mill in Birkirkara, a selection of works by Gabriel Caruana will be presented, projected on the walls using original 35mm slides, shot by his Dutch friend, Bonne Ten Kate (1934-2021). Alongside these “ghostly” presences, a series of drawings preserved at Muky’s house will be presented, these being works for an exhibition that Caruana was meant to hold in Faenza.

Linoprint by Gabriel Caruana Muky Matteucci collection.

These lino prints that have been scanned will be projected alongside the slides, creating a coherent environment capable of telling a long-standing bond. The proof of Faenza’s internationality, capable over the years of remaining at the centre of cultural exchanges that live beyond the existence of the artists who promoted them. To unite us, today as then, ceramics.

Wanda Berasi aka Muky (1926 - 2022)

Sculptor, artist and poet Wanda Berasi, known as Muky, (1926 – 2022) was born in Trento, Italy. She studied art in Trento and Rome at the Accademia Tedesca Roma Villa Massimo and was a student of Marino Mazzacurati, Renato Guttuso and Leoncillo Leonardi. During this time, she exhibited her work in Rome, Canada and Austria, among other places. It is during this period that the name Muky was born, out of necessity and in response to the disadvantage women artists were held at, in her own words: “Back then, women were not considered in the art world; their self-esteem and talent was belittled. MUKY was a name that did not allow the viewer to understand whether I was a man or a woman. And it worked!”

Muky and Gabriel Caruana in Faenza in 1988.

Already an established artist she arrived in Faenza in 1955, where she met her mentor Domenico Matteucci, who was to become her husband. Together, they worked from Matteucci’s ceramic studio. Her work was contemporary, working in monochromatic glazes. She exhibited in Europe, Japan, the United States, and South Africa. She was also a published poet and author. Her work Borderline, co-authored with Angelo Gherardi, was adapted for theatre.

Gabriel Caruana (left) and Domenico Matteucci

Muky and Matteucci opened their residence and studio to fellow artists from across the globe. It is during the 1960s that Caruana ventured to Faenza to participate in the Premio Faenza an international renowned ceramic exhibition showcasing the latest in contemporary ceramics and was introduced to Muky and Matteucci. Muky was an important figure in Caruana’s artistic life, supporting him and developing exhibitions of Caruana in Faenza at La Loggetta del Trentanove and the Galleria Comunale Alla Torre.

Muky has been a crucial and important figure in Faenza and for many artists through her generosity, her welcoming spirit and her verve, contributing to contemporary art and culture and developing an international dialogue through the beauty of contemporary ceramics. A selection of works by Muky and Matteucci are being shown for the first time at The Mill, together with digital reproductions of lino prints created by Caruana. The original lino prints are part of the Muky and Matteucci collection.

Bonne Ten Kate (1934-2021)

Photographer and artist Bonne Ten Kate (1934-2021) of Dutch parents was born in the former Dutch East Indies in Menado, Sulawesi, one of the larger islands in the Indonesian archipelago. During World War II, together with his family, he was imprisoned in various Japanese concentration camps.  The Ten Kate family was repatriated to the Netherlands at the end of the war, where Bonne completed his secondary school. He then studied for seven years at the Amsterdam University, at the departments of theology, psychology, and art history, but neither of these studies ended up in a degree. His deepest wish was to become an artist.

Different circumstances led him to photography. About this he says: “… I made pictures of everybody and everything dear to me: my sons, my family, my beloveds, nudes, scenery, architecture, feasts, the circus. These pictures became the diary of my life…” For the next 24 years Bonne was a freelance photographer. He also created small assemblages of all kinds of scrap materials.

Bonne Ten Kate with Gabriel Caruana

In 1984 Bonne visited Malta for the first time. He met Maltese artists and started to record their works. A fruitful and fertile connection was made with Gabriel Caruana. Bonne Ten Kate visited Caruana regularly for 30 years, documenting Caruana's artistic output.

This materialised in two publications, Gabriel Caruana: Ceramics (Libria, 2000) and Another Side of Gabriel Caruana: His non-Ceramic works (Malta, 2005). Bonne preferred analogue photography, particularly using 35 mm slides. With the introduction of digital processes in the mid 90’s, he turned his focus on assemblage and sculptures. A selection of these original slides showing Caruana’s ceramic work, together with some examples of Bonne’s self-described “scrapyard art” and paintings are being exhibited for the first time at The Mill.

Amici Cari, hosted by  The Mill – Art, Culture and Crafts Centre, is co-curated by Irene Biolchini and Mary Rose Caruana. It is open on Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22 from 4.30 till 8.30pm. The exhibition is part of the Buongiorno Ceramica International Festival, the third time that the Gabriel Caruana Foundation is participating in this unique festival celebrating ceramics. The foundation felt this would be a good occasion to highlight and dearly remember two important figures in Caruana’s artistic life, who have recently passed away. With the Support of: AICC, Associazione Italiana Città della Ceramica. A heartfelt thanks to the MIC of Faenza for making available documents from the Muky Matteucci Collection.