The fourth edition of the MICAS International Art Weekend returns on October 14-15 to celebrate the American artist Michele Oka Doner with her sculptural work The Palm Goddess for Malta.

The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) is intended to strengthen Malta’s position in the contemporary art world.

Scheduled to open in 2023, MICAS will become a showcase for local contemporary artists and aims to also engage with international institutions to present works by acclaimed artists on the global scale.

Michele Oka Doner. Photo: Bruce Weber, courtesy of Doner Studio, New York

Born and raised in Miami, Oka Doner is an internationally renowned artist whose career spans six decades. Her work is fuelled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary.

The breadth of her artistic production encompasses sculpture, drawing, public art, functional objects, video, artist books and costume and set design. She is well known for creating numerous permanent art installations throughout the United States.

The Palm Goddess for Malta is a work of art that embraces the figurative tradition of the ancient past. The sculpture also draws inspiration from the monumental leaves of Phoenix dactylifera, a palm that inhabits the Maltese archipelago.

“This abstract but definitely female form is c. four metres high, a soaring figure held aloft on a c. two meters ‘trunk’ that symbolises growth from the Maltese soil,” says the artist.  

“Just as the majority of archaeological finds represent a deity, something sacred, The Palm Goddess embodies human aspiration and the desire to be lifted up and moved forward by creative expression.”

Michele Oka Doner working on The Palm Goddess for Malta. Photo: MICAS

The Palm Goddess will be exhibited at the Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta, and will be unveiled during the launch of the MICAS International Art Weekend 2022 on October 14. The work will be open for viewing to the public from October 15 onwards.

The unveiling of The Palm Goddess will be followed in the evening by an art dinner curated by Maltese fashion artist Luke Azzopardi at The Phoenicia Malta, Floriana.

The evening will also feature indie singer-songwriter Alexandra Alden, soprano Gillian Zammit, and pop duo The New Victorians.

The MICAS International Art Weekend 2022 will be brought to a close with an art talk with Oka Doner on October 15 at the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta at 10.30am.

In Conversation with Michele Oka Doner will feature a conversation between Doner and Anthony Bonanno, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Malta.

The conversation will explore the theme of the Goddess and the Feminine as the inspiration behind the artist’s new work The Palm Goddess for Malta, while Bonanno will give insights into aspects of neolithic and megalithic culture, social and religious systems and art within the Mediterranean context. The talk will be moderated by international curator and MICAS Artistic Advisor Edith Devaney.

The MICAS International Art Weekend 2022 is supported by the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, Visit Malta, Heritage Malta, Corinthia Palace Malta. For more information on each of the events comprising the Art Weekend, visit https://micas.art/events/micas-international-art-weekend-2022/