Dell u Dawl: the sacred visual language of Alex Dalli

In his exhibition Dell u Dawl meaning “Shade and Light” in Maltese, Alex Dalli presents a powerful body of work shaped by personal adversity and which is imbued with spiritual resilience. The exhibition title captures not only the aesthetic contrasts within Dalli’s paintings but also the emotional and existential dualities that underpin his practice. These works are, at their core, about seeking reassurance: something the artist openly admits he needs, and which he hopes others might also find through his art.

To call Dalli a painter is to fall short of understanding the tactile and sculptural nature of his artistic language. His works are executed in three dimensions: they are built up in layers, then carved back into, scraped, scored, and transformed through an intricate process of addition and removal. Texture becomes a metaphor for experience: raw, imperfect, and sacred.

Artwork by Alex Dalli

For Dalli, art is not simply an expressive outlet; it is a spiritual act, a ritual of affirmation in the face of illness and hardship. He turns to artistic creation not as a form of escape but as a deliberate choice to resist despair. Instead of burying himself in sorrow, Dalli does the opposite. His paintings therefore stand not as lamentations, but as luminous declarations of hope and acceptance.

That is why we will spot gold leaf glimmering through pierced surfaces; specks of red mark moments of intensity, vulnerability, or reverence. In Starry Night, an abstract composition born from his trials, these elements come together to form a contemporary meditation on Van Gogh’s famous work: its celestial title evokes not just the cosmos, but the journey through darkness toward light.

Artwork by Alex Dalli

Dalli’s materials are deeply personal. In Xbija, a painting that contains a once-functional towel that he used to clean his brushes, has become a sacred object. The work recalls the Shroud of Christ, wrapped not around a body but around the tools Dalli used for his creations. Browned with pigment and time, it exudes a patina of quiet reverence, becoming a relic of artistic devotion. Through such gestures, Dalli reclaims the sacred from the ordinary, allowing even the most modest materials to speak of love, sacrifice, and transcendence. Spirituality pervades much of his recent work.

Childhood, memory, and trauma surface in more personal works such as Childhood, where crayon-like colours drawn in a centrally etched circle evoke innocence tempered by reflection. The image is reminiscent of a vinyl record, one that the artist takes in and out, playing memories as needed, refusing to be chained by the past. The symbolism is gentle yet profound: the past remains accessible, but it does not dominate.

Artwork by Alex Dalli

Throughout his work, Dalli privileges simplicity. His simplicity does not emerge out of naivety but as a radical form of humility. A painting inspired by a ballerina’s poised foot is reduced to its most essential shape, yet its emotional resonance is undiminished. For Dalli, the greatest truths are often the most stripped back. His Milky Way, delicate and spiritually charged, expresses a quiet, hopeful desire for healing. He does not seek grandeur, but grace.

His social conscience also emerges in works such as Shipwreck, a stark reflection on the ongoing tragedy of migration across the Mediterranean. Here, Dalli evokes the horror of loss with restrained yet haunting imagery: nails scratching at the remnants of boats on the sea’s surface, desperate for rescue that never comes. It is a work of moral weight, a lament for forgotten lives.

Artwork by Alex Dalli

Dalli's influences are local as much as they are spiritual. He cites Anton Inglott, Harry Alden and George Fenech as inspirations, yet resists any attempt to compare or categorise his practice. He insists that artists must act as sponges, absorbing what they encounter but ultimately transforming it into something wholly their own. And while echoes of canonical masterpieces may surface in his work, it is clear that what he creates springs from a deeply personal and singular journey.

Anna Dalli, Alex Dalli and Charlene Vella

Ultimately, Dell u Dawl is an offering, of art as refuge, as strength, as testament. Through each textured surface and gesture, Alex Dalli invites us to confront the shadows in our own lives and to find, however tentatively, the light that persists.

The exhibition is open until April 28 at the Palm Court Lounge at The Phoenicia Malta and is curated by Prof Charlene Vella.