Art…e Gallery in Victoria is hosting Skylines, a new collection of landscape paintings by Gozitan artist Christopher Saliba, a renowned colourist with a passion for intense and dramatic interpretations of his surrounding environment. It’s his first solo show in five years, and these expressionist works are large, bold and ablaze with warm colours, flooding the space with heat, energy and emotion.

The exhibition includes views from both Malta and Gozo, each a powerful dramatisation marked by either dominant horizontal or vertical lines and a strong underlying geometry.

Gozitan artist Christopher Saliba

“The horizon is more than where the land meets the sky,” says Saliba. “It’s a powerful line that divides the artwork but also connects everything within it. I have tried to capture the energy of the landscape where the skyline isn’t calm or peaceful, but alive with feeling.”

The horizon, according to Saliba, is never still – it’s sometimes bold, sometimes quiet, and always suggests something beyond what we see. It’s where the tension between sky and land is strongest, where the eye doesn’t rest but keeps searching. In city scenes, it pushes upward, full of the energy and rush of urban life. In nature, it stretches wide, pulling the viewer into a deeper, more intense experience. Saliba’s works seek to present the essence of a place rather than an objective reality.

“I start with a sketch or photograph as a starting point”, he explains, “but that reference makes up only about 20 per cent of the finished work. The remaining 80 per cent comes from my personal interpretation and the emotions the landscape evokes in me, transforming the piece into an expression of my inner experience.”

Fontana, Gozo

While daring and challenging in traditional landscapes, the colour red dominates Saliba’s art. For this series, Saliba primed his canvases with a bold orange to achieve a deep vibrancy, adding many fiery hues that draw your eye like a moth to a flame.  Golds, pumpkin, apricot and a rich red rose suggest the summer heat of the glorious sunrises and sunsets. Yet we’ve all heard the old saying, “Red sky and night, shepherds’ delight; Red sky in the morning, sailors’ warning”. And while red represents love and warmth, it can also signal a threat or a warning. Are these saturated tones indicative of climate change, global warming or man’s excessive intervention in the natural world?

“Warmth versus danger is a profound contrast; it brings up the complexity of human emotion and perception, where one colour, in this case red, can evoke contrasting feelings,” Saliba continues.

I merge various atmospheric lighting effects and dissolve conventional boundaries to create dramatic, dreamlike and timeless spaces on canvas- Christopher Saliba

In the collection, alongside the classic view of Valletta from the Grand Harbour, the monumental bastions of St Angelo in blazing oranges tend towards minimalism.

Another exhibit.

Inspired by Mark Rothko’s works, Gozo’s Sanap Cliffs are abstracted geometrically in furnace gold and appear to vibrate with intensity. Saliba’s combination of expansive scale, layered colour and emotional depth materialise in atmospheric and dramatic interpretations, theatrically drawing the viewer into what he hopes will be a meditative, transcendent experience.

“I merge various atmospheric lighting effects and dissolve conventional boundaries to create dramatic, dreamlike and timeless spaces on canvas,” he continues.

“The Mediterranean light is key in my art,” he adds. “The light is beautiful but forceful and therefore creates strong visual contrasts. In Malta, it is interesting to observe the play of natural light on the rich textures of rugged and terraced landscapes and eroded stone.”

The Mediterranean light is key in Saliba's art.

This is evident in an unusual overhead view of Nadur, a monumental grid-iron set against the sea, the buildings searing in the vibrant orange-red hues of a burning sun; and in an intimate painting of a brilliant turquoise door in an old red-purple wall, roughly textured with the artist’s palette knife.

There are other softer works too: bobbing on a sea gently striped with pale and royal blues, boats are bathed in wistful peach light at Marsaxlokk and in Mġarr where the world appears to ripple, and with a gentle nostalgia, in dreamy Marsalforn by night, reminiscent of nativity scenes, the old church is spotlit in a pale-gold.

And with these blues among the works in fiery red, orange and gold, the exhibition itself mirrors the way Saliba works with complementary colours in each of his paintings.

Senglea, Early Morning

Other pieces are moodier. The Għarb church and Ta’ Pinu appear together in rich velvet wine reds, and the citadel stands silhouetted in baroque dark garnet and carmine hues with a glittering flash of gold striping the sky above. There’s a second captivating depiction of Victoria’s citadel, wrapped in terraces of emerald green, and resplendent of all the glorious colours of opulent costume jewellery, it’s a magical reminder of the islands’ treasures and the emotions they evoke in all of us.

The exhibition can be viewed from Monday to Saturday between 9.30am and 12.15pm and on Sundays between 10am and 12pm. It runs until December 28.