Joseph Agius talks to artist RAY PISCOPO about his current exhibition, Meandering Realms, at the Cavalieri Art Hotel

JA: This is Ray Piscopo’s third exhibition at the Cavalieri Art Hotel over the past year. Does this exhibition have a title or there’s no necessity for one?

RP: If I had to assign a title that best describes a theme for the set of paintings I personally selected to be exhibited at the Cavalieri Art Hotel, it would be Meandering Realms. This should give one to understand that there are no dogmas or set rules governing a common theme to these set of works. As distinct from all my other previous exhibitions that had a definite underlying theme or even a specific style/technique, this set of works is a collection that simply portrays meandering flashes in my mind at the time. 

Man with Goats

I opted to choose this set for my third exhibition at the Cavalieri Art Hotel simply to show the viewer another angle from the range of works I create. As simple as that.  My artworks can be classified under various headers, styles, themes and techniques.  Being the resident artist at the Cavalieri gives me the chance to show to the public the wide range of artworks that I have in my repertoire, and which may have not been exhibited in public except perhaps in a post on social media. 

The first exhibition held in August 2021 consisted of artworks under the title Of Structure and Deconstruction.  This particular set of works had a distinctive artistic style which was the result of the restrictive environment brought about by the COVID pandemic and which pushed me to being more incisive and impulsive in my strokes. 

The second exhibition Forgotten Malta consisted of paintings of old-time Malta, and showed the disappearance of certain values, habits and the beauty of the landscape.  In this third exhibition, I have included figurative and abstract works which I consider to be powerful due to the vividness of the colour palette I adopted as well as to the embedded messages they transmit.

Pots

JA: Can you tell us more about the underlying theme?

RP: As I tried to explain above, I can say that the underlying theme is the meandering realms of my mind. Sometimes it is difficult keeping pace with my mind. I do not stick to dogmas and even though my educational base was in engineering and had to abide by certain rules, laws and limits, I hate to be constrained.

I therefore let my mind wander and I follow suit, trying to capture moments as they come. Inspiration come from all quarters and whatever impacts my mind, rest assured that I will somehow translate it on to canvas. Art and science are not antagonistic: they are somewhat complimentary.

Mindbank

JA: Paintings such as Mindbank and Being Eccentric border on the non-representational. Is this a new territory that you wish to explore?

RP: I have painted many abstracts and I chose these particular two to perhaps display this realm of my creations. I love abstracted art and apart from the large format canvasses I painted, I have also created what I call the Credit Card Collection. This set of about 60 paintings (average size 70cm x 50cm) have been created using mixed media and largely ‘painted’ in a scraping/sweeping technique by the use of an old credit card. 

I had started using this technique many years ago and I was lucky to attend a masterclass with Austrian artist Hubert Scheibl in Austria who adopted the same scraping techniques as Gerhard Richter. This particular set has been very successful, and the textures created in these paintings is really superb.  I intend to augment the available paintings with newer works this summer as I need space and quick drying times for multiple layering.

Being Eccentric

JA: Persons enjoying themselves as in Catching Up and self-idolisation such as in Narcisse seem to celebrate a newly- found freedom post-COVID. We are ‘catching up’ with life pre-COVID. Are such calamities as pandemics life-affirming in the sense that the loss of what had been taken for granted up to 2020 suddenly reappears in a new and blinding light? Do we need these reality checks once in a while?

RP: Art is the perfect medium to remind us of our belle époques and it is good to keep our feet on the ground and keep reminding ourselves of how and what we were before new realities diverted the course of everybody’s lives.  Everybody likes to take photos to capture ‘the moment’ and more are resorting to the narcissistic ‘selfies’ to remind themselves and others how ‘we want to show ourselves’. 

I do not stick to dogmas and even though my educational base was in engineering and I had to abide by certain rules, laws and limits

I am inclined to mention here the painting 100 Ways to change the world. This painting portrays a small boy in a sleeping trance with a set of cogwheels in the background, as if the cogwheels of his mind were in motion to change the world.  

100 ways to change the world

The boy in this painting is my son who was sleeping on a train from London to Portsmouth. He was wearing a T-shirt that was printed on the occasion of world environment day during the time I was working with a leading microelectronics company having added responsibilities for the environmental program. 

The T-shirt was printed with a list of 100 initiatives/actions to change the world, in the environmental sense. Actions included saving energy, water, recycling, etc. I took all these input elements and created this painting so that any viewer would realise that there are many ways how one can remind somebody else about doing good things, and in my own way doing it through art. Post-COVID challenges include climate change, and... ending wars and conflicts. Reality checks should be frequent, but more importantly we have to change the course if we are going on a deviant path.

Narcisse

JA: This is your third exhibition at the Cavalieri Art Hotel. Do you acknowledge each exhibition as steps in a certain direction or are the three exhibitions completely unrelated thematically and conceptually?

RP: The management of the Cavalieri Art Hotel has given me the opportunity to be their resident artist and to be able to show to the residents and to the public a sample of my artworks.  I am taking the opportunity to show the viewer different sets of works that the public has never seen, except perhaps on social media which was the prime mode for communicating when the rest of the world was in lockdown.  There are no set rules as I am sure that whatever I put on display is well liked by any viewer who finds time to see the exhibits. 

In my career, apart from large format paintings, I have other categories of art material like mail art, credit card collection (abstracted works in small sizes), watercolour paintings, prints, digital artworks and others.  The themes are varied as well as the techniques and styles adopted.   I consider that it is a great opportunity to show what I have done and what I am doing now without going through official inaugurations.  These exhibitions are of mutual benefit to the management of the hosting hotel and to myself.  

Ray Piscopo

The only common link I see between exhibitions is the artist. Without mentioning specific master artists who had several paintings from their own ‘periods’, the Cavalieri Art Hotel is giving me a chance to display my works from all my ‘periods’. I consider the space given to me as my art museum where the public can enjoy art as well as have a quiet drink in a superb ambience.

Having gone full-time as an artist in 2011 (having started painting in early 1970s) and exhibiting solo at this same Cavalieri Art Hotel in 2012 with my OPUS 2012, I can say that it would be somewhat sad that the hundreds of paintings and thousands of smaller works I created would remain in my gallery. I felt the need to share them with the public and that was why my website (www.raypiscopo.com) and my social medial accounts are my showcases. 

No holds barred

I have participated in scores of exhibitions and many of them solo, including the New York Art Expo and Biennale Milano. I have also created Malta’s first virtual art exhibition(https://piscopoart.com/virtual-exhibition/) as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions, which exhibition was endorsed by the Minister for Health and the Superintendence of Public Health. 

Having been the resident artist for the Corinthia Palace Hotel (and art curator for 24 exhibitions at same hotel) and for the Phoenicia Hotel, I can say that I lost no chance in exhibiting my paintings. People can still visit an ever-changing art set-up at my personal gallery (with appointment). Finally, I thank Mark Camilleri, general manager of the Cavalieri Art Hotel, for the opportunity given to be the resident artist.

Meandering Realms, hosted by Cavalieri Art Hotel, is on until the end of July. The artist can be contacted on 7947 3801.