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VS 1Valerio Schembri (b.1969) read for degree in architecture at the University of Malta (1988 – 1993), and obtained a masters degree in Baroque Studies from the same University in 2002. He presently lives and works in Naxxar, Malta, where he runs his own architectural atelier and his VS 2ceramics studio.

As a ceramist Valerio has participated in various local collective exhibitions including several editions of the prestigious Malta –Cyprus Collective Exhibition, in Malta and Larnaca, Cyprus. Valerio participated in the International Ceramica Multiplex in Varazdin, Croatia in 2009 and 2012. In 2010 the ceramist was awarded an honourable mention in the prestigious European Biennale for Ceramics in Mamer, Luxembourg. In 2011 Valerio also took part in the Sicily-Malta-Cyprus collective in Bagheria, Sicily. In 2012 he was selected among the finalists and exhibited in the 32nd Concors Internacional de Ceramica de l'Alcora held in Alcora, Spain. The ceramist was one of the four selected artists for the APS Bank Exhibition (Malta) in 2012. In 2012 also, twelve of his ceramic sculptures were exclusively exhibited in the internal courtyard of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in Valletta, Malta, as part of the Novenovo festival to commemorate the anniversary of the society. As part of Public Arts in Gozo 2011 his large sculpture in Gozitan hardstone was installed at Marsalforn in March 2013. In 2014 Valerio represented Malta at the European Ceramics Context in Bornholm, Denmark.

Valerio describes his expression through clay as a medium in the following manner: "Ceramics for me is not solely a personal exploration and celebration of an artistic process but an attempt at a fruitful interaction with a broader horizon. The start of a new piece signals throwing myself into the deep end, where all is unknown. With a sincere passion and deep respect for the medium, energy and enthusiasm become the forces that keep me afloat. The inner search for making a good work drives me through technical and creative experiments that take various directions. The final product never becomes a stereotype, but a constitutive dialectic between inside and outside, between personal feeling and outside image. An inner life is revealed through the work's external features and allowing itself to be sensed beyond the external shell, the form. The investigation of the relationship between the visible face and the invisible spirit animating is not limited to my portrait but extended to my surroundings"


Mdina Biennale Venues