Wearing his soul on his sleeve

In what is a colourful blast of vibrant and at times passionate colours, James Vella Clark is once again on show, and in more ways than one. If anything, within the collection of Two Harbours, there is a self-portrait. Few artists have dared portray their own face in painting in recent times and surely not with as much fire and fury and pent-up rage. The self-portrait takes me by surprise. This is not the same calm, smiling person who welcomes me to discuss the works, not the artist I know.

"It is the reason behind Two Harbours, as in two sides to each personality. This self-portrait is showing the dark side of me and quite frankly I feel this exhibition betrays me a lot. The portrait itself was painted at a time when I was suffering, facing empty canvases and not knowing what to paint. It was a low phase when I actually wished I wasn't an artist - I was feeling the need to evolve my style. Out of frustration, I painted my own frustration."

From Olaug's Funeral - a personal homage to the late Olaug Vethal who passed away earlier this year - to The Bridge of Suicides, the paintings go on to seek the concept of duality as in life and death, or even two islands, two bays, two gods struggling. It is all about the inner and the outer, the yin and the yang. His big search is an ongoing one and as I view the paintings in chronological order, I can feel and see the evolution from the style he utilised in the Four Days at Fawwara series of 2006, to one which is delving into deeper and freer colour experimentation. In some instances I can catch glimpses of the poignant It Hurts Beautifully, a 2006 painting which had mesmerised me with its savage red blurts of tangible aching anger that stopped dead when the anger was suddenly spent.

While in his previous exhibition Mr Vella Clark's works openly acknowledged the landscape of Fawwara as somehow helping the artist eke out his emotional expression, this time landscape plays second fiddle, if at all. Except perhaps, in his portrayal of Tower Road, but even there, the painting does not really speak of Tower Road, but of heart-rending loneliness, of the solitary road through life, or perhaps of a road leading nowhere. Although it is the only really discernible location, it somehow reminds me of Munch. Certainly, those trying to decipher the whereabouts of any of the lone cypresses, or to geographically locate a cupola which seems to be thrown in haphazardly, are way out of sync.

"I attempted to explain my works through short written descriptions as to what led to each painting, because these are not landscapes. Somebody called this an apologetic approach. The comment took me by surprise, because I am not at all apologetic - I feel I have dared to be as frank as anybody could dare to be and publicly so."

The artist who has in the past acknowledged the influence of Maltese artist Carbonaro, adamantly insists that these works created over a stretch of two years draw on so many different and unconsciously absorbed and assimilated influences, that he can truly say he is presenting something all of his own.

And finally we come to a plateau. As is habitual in Mr Vella Clark's exhibitions, the last painting of the show is completely different from the rest and points the way to further experimentation. This one speaks of serenity through placid horizontality, reminding one of other Maltese artists who tackled the horizontal line creatively as did Schembri Bonaci in 2004 and neo-artist Patrick Mifsud in 2006. However, Mr Vella Clark's apparent serenity is not totally convincing. Beneath the calm, and relief, there is a quiet fire raging. It is just an inkling of a furnace blazing on...

•Two Harbours is at the Main Hall, St James Cavalier, Valletta until January 6.