Wallace Falzon’s landscapes are recognisable by their bold and inky linework. The fluid marks not only define the sunlit scenes, but act as barrier between impassioned and vivid hues.

Inspired by memory and location, I See Colour displays Falzon’s deep appreciation for colour and Maltese scenery, pointing towards a strong connection between colour and memories of his childhood. However, beneath the surface of these paintings, Falzon encapsulates a bittersweet longing for a vanishing world.

Fields of Gozo (2024)

Falzon’s profound and emotional interpretation of colour animates his landscapes with an intense vibrancy that emphasises form and medium.

Vivid and attention-seeking, the paintings in I See Colour evoke an underlining pressing message: these landscapes may disappear soon. To Falzon, these paintings function as a call for environmental preservation, imploring us to act before these scenes are reduced to memory.

Look Mama, Trees! (2024) and Where Are the Trees? (2023)

Falzon extends his message through the materials he chooses, often painting on repurposed industrial surfaces such as concrete boards or natural elements like dried cactus stumps.

These paintings function as a call for environmental preservation, imploring us to act before these scenes are reduced to memory

These recycled unconventional materials underline Falzon’s artistic progress and his anxiety concerning the metamorphism of soil to concrete, as expressed in Nature Finds a Way, where a xaħxieħ vjola (purple poppy, indigenous to Malta) solely emerges from dead, scorched earth, painted from the artist’s perspective.

Nature Finds a Way (2021)

The underlying narrative of the exhibition gains intensity in works such as Look Mama, Trees! which depicts a young boy mistaking rusted construction cranes for trees, symbolising Falzon’s apprehension for future generations.

Similarly, his sculpture Where Are the Trees? depicts a solitary figure holding a glass pane etched with the image of a tree; a poignant and haunting metaphor for a future where a once-thriving ecosystem survives only as a distant memory.

Into the Deep (2024)

Fields of Gozo and Red Soil depict technicolour rural landscapes which struggle to be sustained in the reality of an engulfing capitalistic world. Into the Deep portrays a lone diver in the solitude and clear waters of the islands – suspended in the present, but for how long? Industrial fish farming looms metres away from this idyllic scene.

On the one hand, I See Colour encourages appreciation for the Maltese landscape; on the other, this exhibition aims to probe thoughts and emotions surrounding the Southern Mediterranean’s overdevelopment, the irreversible consequences of urban sprawl, and to consider what can be done to safeguard heritage.

The exhibition's poster

At its heart, I See Colour is an ode to Malta and Gozo, celebrating their natural beauty while grappling with environmental fragility and uncertainty.

The exhibition is open from February 7 to 17 at Gemelli Art Gallery, Ta’ Qali. Consult the venue’s Facebook page for opening hours.