Two Maltese artists taking part in Venice collective exhibition

Out of 4,013 artists from 104 countries, Maltese artists Sasha Vella and Mario Abela have been selected as two of just 41 artists to feature in Crea Open 2025, an international contemporary art exhibition taking place in Venice this April at Crea Cantiere del Contemporaneo.

The exhibition opened yesterday, April 12, and will run until April 27, bringing together emerging contemporary artists from around the world.

For Vella, this marks her first opportunity on the international art stage. The adjudicating panel selected a photograph of hers for this exhibition titled The Illusion of Solitude, which emerged from the artist’s last hiking solo trip in the Dolomites, Italy.

'The Eternal Hunt' by Mario Abela

The selected artwork of Abela, a senior lecturer at MCAST, is a painting titled The Eternal Hunt that explores the underlying complexities and contradictions inherent in human existence.

The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘2570 Revolutions Around the Earth’, born from an idea by Pier Paolo Scelsi and Ilaria Cera, and borrows its title from the story of the first living being launched into space, the dog Laika, protagonist of one of the most iconic events of the race to conquer the cosmos and the Cold War.

'The Illusion of Solitude' by Sasha Vella

At 2.30 in the morning on November 3, 1957, Laika embarked on her space journey aboard the Russian spacecraft Sputnik 2 which, after 2570 orbits around the Earth, interrupted all communications and was probably destroyed.

The exhibition, say the organisers, imagines a parallel history in which the ‘Space Dog’ continued to travel in the cosmos, looking down on humans from above, and observing them from her porthole.

Vella’s photograph selected as part of this exhibition depicts the Seceda Ridgeline, shot at the beginning of a 16km hike in the area on LomoChrome Purple Film.

Although it was not shot on expired film, a highly experimental medium which often features in Vella’s artistic practice, it was still an experimental shot as the film itself typically transforms greens into purple.

Sasha Vella

Vella has been exploring the concept of walking art through her long walks and documentary film photography, recently having done a series of solo hikes in the Dolomites as part of her artistic practice.

In October, she also exhibited in Far From Somewhere, curated by Elyse Tonna and Margerita Pulè, after being selected through an open call. Her final work, The Passages of Change, combining film photography and writing, resulted in an artist book which explores the concept of change through a series of meandering walks around the island coast of Gozo.

Vella explains her ‘walking art’ as whatever emerges from her long walks, where the walk itself is the primary medium. “Without the walk or hike itself, the work could not exist,” she says. 

The key themes present in Vella’s walking art are the acts of slowing down and noticing, the connection to nature and the journey itself as the artwork. Artists that have inspired her to explore this artform include Hamish Fulton and Richard Long.

“What materialised in the film photograph The Illusion of Solitude is not merely a record of a place, but rather a manifestation of an embodied experience. It’s beyond a documentation, but rather an act of evocation – of the quiet weight of solitude, the slowness of passage, the realisation that true solitude is an illusion,” she explains.

Abela’s The Eternal Hunt – an oil on canvas – is a response to Watteau’s Rendez-vous de Chasse, which presents a fête galante scene of a hunting party, a moment of leisure and friendship. However, Abela’s painting aims to delve deeper beneath this idyllic surface.

Mario Abela

“Derrida’s deconstructionist philosophy offers a valuable lens through which to examine this exploration,” says the artist.

“Deconstruction challenges the notion of fixed meanings and reveals the underlying binary oppositions that structure our understanding of the world.

“In Watteau’s painting, the dichotomy between pleasure and pain is invisible; often obscured by the superficial beauty of the scene.”

Abela says his painting seeks to disrupt this binary opposition by highlighting the darker realities that often coexist with moments of joy and celebration.

“Thoughts, sufferings and health issues are universal experiences, yet they are often hidden behind carefully curated facades. Hence, the eternal hunt for meaning carries on…”

Detail of The Eternal Hunt

Abela’s work spans diverse mediums and techniques, primarily painting and drawing. A self-taught artist, he brings a background in art and history education, digital arts and 15 years of experience as a freelance graphic designer to his practice. He later transitioned to dedicating himself fully to the visual arts.

The artist has received numerous accolades, including being longlisted for the 2018 Aesthetica Art Prize (USA) and a finalist for the Spring 2023, Hopper Art Prize (USA) among others. His work has been featured in various group and solo exhibitions in Malta and abroad. In 2024, Cretacolor Vienna named him one of their brand ambassadors.

During the opening happening yesterday, April 12, the winners of Crea Open 2025 were announced who shared the three prizes up for grabs: a personal exhibition organised and curated by CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo, an artistic residency in Turin in collaboration with CRAG Gallery, and a third special prize that was announced during the evening.

For more information, visit creavenice.com.