Cicek Gallery in London will be hosting Antic Hay, the first UK solo exhibition of Maltese artist and political cartoonist Sebastian Tanti Burlò.

The timely show surveys the ever-declining decadence of Western societies, and levels an irreverent critique at the nationalistic sentiments sweeping the European continent.

Antic Hay comprises a new collection of 14 oil paintings that includes a ribald cast of fictional caricatures – ranging from Major Mann to the artist’s signature “Sausage People” – set amid a series of stately and mundane surroundings.

As the political cartoonist for the Times of Malta, Burlò’s honed satirical commentary underpins the whole of Antic Hay. His cartoons have been published weekly in the Times of Malta since 2014. 

“My work is an artistic response to the jingoism that is seen proliferating across Europe today,” Burlò says.

Aperitivo in Mezzomonte

“As the savage winds of the climate crisis crash around us, carrying the booms of war drums closer each day, we are once again caught dancing the antic hay.

“This collection of paintings is a satirical take on our Western society, frivolously living through our troubled times.”

The artist repurposes the public fixation on luxurious narratives of nobility and power, seen across popular culture from Downton Abbey to Succession. He evokes the current state of Western democracy, a haggard society filled with a creeping sense of anti-establishment revolution.

In his series Decay and Decadence in Late Britain, Burlò has created a triptych of theatrical and stately – if somewhat rundown – interiors, adorned with trophies of endangered animals.

Decay and Decadence in Late Britain no. I

Unwittingly mirroring the plight of these hunted beasts, in the first of the series one finds Major Mann alone, dwarfed by his emptied home, his old portrait in full military dress the only painting left in his collection. He is sitting reading a newspaper head­lined ‘Last polar bear dies’ as his bare feet caress its worn white pelt.

In contrast to Decay and Decadence of Late Britain, three rich canvases capture life in the heat of the Mediterranean. Breakfast in Pisciotta, Aperitivo in Mezzomonte and Dusk in Palermo brim with trappings of luxury and are saturated with the yellows and greens that signify the region’s vitality.

A haggard society filled with a creeping sense of anti-establishment revolution

However, the trio is cut with warnings that these islands of privilege cannot remain so for much longer. A vanitas skull lurks behind the smoking protagonist in Mezzomonte; the morning’s newspaper in Pisciotta is headlined ‘We’re fucked’; and a copy of Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa lies on a coffee table in Palermo. The sky is stained orange by returning summer fires.

Midnight in Paris

Burlò took much inspiration for this series from Il Gattopardo; a tale of the old order in decline with incontrovertible change in the air, encapsulated in the paradox “Everything must change so that everything can stay the same”. Despite the verdant surroundings of these scenes, the artist directs one’s attention beyond their carefree façades towards a deeper political miasma.

Throughout the exhibition, Burlò’s “Sausage People” are seen going about their everyday life. According to the artist, “they hold up a mirror to us. We recognise our blind overconsumption of resources…” It is a scathing visual remark on the comfortable laurels we sit upon.

The various worlds collide in Midnight in Paris in which a richly dressed man gazes languidly at the viewer, unperturbed by the Molotov cocktail that has smashed through the restaurant window. This signals a flashpoint moment within Antic Hay that sees the tense boundaries between the haves and the have-nots beginning to violently erode.

The exhibition poster

The name Antic Hay references an absurd dance described in Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, as well as Aldous Huxley’s novel of the same name that explores the decline of an aimless societal elite post-World War I.

Cicek Gallery is an independent art gallery founded in 2021 by artist and entrepreneur Berfin Cicek. The gallery champions emerging artists yet to be discovered by the world, with a specific focus on artists from underrepresented demographics. These include artists of different ethnic minorities, artists from LGBTQ+ communities and female artists.  Working with a limited number of artists allows the gallery to build their exposure within the art market and enables collectors access to a carefully curated exhibition programme.

Antic Hay by Sebastian Tanti Burlò is showing at Cicek Gallery between August 15 to 31. For more information, visit cicekgallery. com/exhibitions/ 16-upcoming-antic-hay-seb-tanti-burlo/ overview/.