There are cases in the Maltese art sphere when father and son jointly participated in an art exhibition. One could mention the past collaborations of the late Antoine Camilleri and his son, Antoine Paul, and the late George Fenech and his son, Gilbert, among others.

At times, the style of the father somewhat rubbed on that of the son. That is not the case in the exhibition titled An Experience of Colour Through Different Mediums, currently hosted by Ir-Razzett tal-Markiż Mallia Tabone in Mosta, featuring the work of Frank Bonnici and his son, Kris. This is, incidentally, the 250th exhibition organised at this popular cultural centre since its inception.

Frank Bonnici

Frank, who had a long career as a professional printer, burst onto the local art scene last October, with his solo of paintings in the watercolour, acrylic and digital mediums. That multi-thematic exhibition showed a very versatile artist, still attempting to find an artistic footing.

He has been very busy exhibiting; another solo and various collectives since then have shown progress that has been quite remarkable. Frank claims he is not focused on specific themes, yet, he is more interested in detail.

He has a marked knack for portraying architecture, especially wayside chapels and other buildings of inherent architectural value. For this exhibition, he is showing a work that depicts the Valletta’s Royal Opera House standing majestic and proud, before it was devastated in World War II by the German Luftwaffe on April 7, 1942.

A sense of pathos permeates these paintings, a nostalgia for the architecture of the days of old, when wayside chapels stood steadfast amid the rolling countryside, offering a sheltered place where one could pray away from the slow bustle of the traditional village life. One could feel, much more so, the divine’s presence in the pristine nature of garrigue, fields, rubble walls, cart ruts, trees and flowers.

Mosta has a number of these shrines, essentially defining the town and being the base for much of its lore and legends. Some of these lowly buildings have been overwhelmed by hideous architecture; the tiny chapel dedicated to St Andrew in the neighbourhood known as Tarġa Gap is one glaring case.

Kris Bonnici

It once stood almost solitary, at the edge of what was then a village; nowadays it has been overwhelmed by architectural monstrosities, vilely depriving it of its context and purpose. Through this series of paintings, Frank nostalgically craves for a life that has passed us by. Besides these, he is also exhibiting a number of paintings thematically linked to the female body. They are also studies in solitude and introspection.

This is the first exhibition for Kris, who is exhibiting digi­tal landscape photography and other themes. He claims that, through the art of digital photography, he became curious about the possibilities offered by a conventional SLR camera to which he slowly started to experiment with the 35mm film medium; in future he intends to investigate the rolls of film and the subdued light of a darkroom. He would like to try his hand at the traditional fixing and developing of celluloid and the printing of images using an enlarger.

The photographer portrays the untainted and the great outdoors, as in his photo­graphs of the dramatic Scottish landscape. The great American photographer Ansel Adams, much admired by Kris, once said: “There are no forms in nature. Nature is a vast, chaotic collection of shapes. You as an artist create configu­rations out of chaos.”

The Maltese photographer explores the rhythm of nature and the haphazardness of its shapes, deciphering its timeless message through his compositions. Nature is the master creator; these works introspectively murmur with prayer. He then performs subtle edits to his work, eliminating the unnecessary, thus finalising the envisioned composition.

Kris is also interested in the way light strikes buildings and the creation of shadows as compositional elements, especially in a monochromatic ‘black and white’ style.

A photograph of a solitary telephone box, lit and empty, like a wayside chapel, is similarly a sentinel to a life that no longer exists. The mobile phone has relegated it to disuse and to a symbol, a commemorative monument of our past as a British colony. Just like the chapels depicted by Frank, the red phone boxes have become superfluous to the contemporary mode of existence. There is an unspeakable sadness in this, coupled with a great sense of loss.

An Experience of Colour Through Different Mediums, hosted by Ir-Razzett tal-Markiż Mallia Tabone, runs until July 30. Consult the venue’s Facebook page for more information.