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VA 1Victor Agius' (b.1982) first contact with art was at his father's sculpture studio and later at Harry Alden's art classes. He furthered his studies in advanced ceramics at the Malta College for Science and Technology under the tuition of George Muscat. He obtained his degree in Art from the University of Malta and continued his studies at the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture in Perugia, Italy and at Central Saint Martin's College for Art and Design in London, where he studied Contemporary Fine Arts.

His work has been exhibited in Malta at Opus 64 Galerie in Sliema and the Auberge d'Italie in Valletta, and at the International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Florence. Other recent group exhibitions include those held at Long Room Gallery at Oxford University, Centre Culturel Christiane Peugeot in Paris, Bricklane Gallery in London, Arte Padova in Padova, the Museum of ModernVA 2 Art in Santo Domingo, Galleria San Eufemia in Venice and at Spazio Pastificio Cerere in Rome. He also exhibited at 'Duke of Edinburgh Room 36' curated by Austin Camilleri. Recently he worked in sculptures and installations with composer Mariella Cassar for the Ġgantija 2013 Project held at the UNESCO World Heritage site Ġgantija Temples in Gozo Malta, which was curated by Vince Briffa. His recent work, which documented the event 'Phusis - Unframing the landscape', was selected by the Malta National Museum of Fine Arts to feature in a collective exhibition in Valletta. In his latest project he dialogued with Prof Richard England's book 'Sanctuaries' through his mixed media works using raw matter entitled 'On Reddened Soil'. Agius was selected to represent Malta in the international European Ceramic Context exhibition, which will be held in Norway in September 2014.

For Agius objects, sculptures, earth, soil and furniture are literally material. Encompassing painting, sculpture, performance or installation, he reacts to the spaces, places and objects surrounding him, re-interpreting them and transcending them amongst others. Raw clay, soil, ceramics, stones and pebbles, straw, twigs, branches, natural pigments, are just a few elements used to create bodies of work that draw upon his ecological experience and his archaeology of formless matter while helping him reflect on the limits of his own existence. His shamanistic approach in his practice enables him to identify his being with the conceptual corpus of work he creates.

Sometimes the elements at hand and the data collected during his interdisciplinary processes, documentation and investigations create an ambiguous narrative. His interventions and mixed media work evolve to create a visual discourse between the object and its transformative identity in relation to a place, between the organic and the industrial language that shapes and explores form.

www.victoragius.com

Photo credit: Daniel Cilia


Mdina Biennale Venues