20 June 2025 - 6 July 2025
Project Type: Solo Exhibition
Venue: Il-Kamra ta' Fuq
Curator: Melanie Erixon
Art Sweven: Curatorial and exhibition credit
Review: Professor Gorg Mallia

In Search of the Unknown

Artist Statement

In Search of the Unknown is not presented to the audience as a finalised body of work, but rather as an exploration of the creative process that unfolds before the artist arrives at a 'solution'. It can be understood as an open studio, offering a glimpse into the multitude of possibilities that emerge during the act of creation. At times, this process flows seamlessly; at others, it is chaotic and challenging. Regardless, the creative journey is always dynamic, with its intensity varying from one artist to another.

Following numerous exhibitions at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, an opportunity emerged to collaborate with an artist in order to highlight this very process. With years of experience in art education across various levels and an established presence in the local art scene, Darren Tanti took on this project and offered the public a rare insight into his creative journey.

The project encapsulates the artist's pursuit of discovery and meaning through art. Here, viewers may notice connections to both Tanti's earlier and more recent works: traces of past inspirations, new elements, potential developments, and even dead ends or failures. While many artists choose to reveal only the final, resolved pieces, Tanti embraces the opportunity to share the often-unseen aspects of his process. This openness is a natural extension of his work in the studio-classroom environment, where the emphasis on process is key.

Review by Professor Gorg Mallia

Darren Tanti's photorealistic artistic imagings are legendary. The man knows his stuff. Seeing a finished Tanti painting transports one to the Renaissance, sometimes to the Baroque era, and always to the breathtaking feeling of excellent craftsmanship.

The man knows how to paint. His mastery of the portrait, often ensconced within the concept, is next to none, and getting a rare glimpse into the skeleton that props up the body is a rare and appreciated event.

That is what his latest exhibition, In Search of the Unknown, gives us: a no-holds-barred look at the process that leads to that final product that mesmerises and enthrals. The exhibition at the Il-Kamra ta' Fuq art space, perfectly curated by Melanie Erixon of Art Sweven, is a continuation of a previous exhibition at the same gallery in which several artists, including Darren, showed work in progress. The non finito, normally attributed to works that artists are working on when they die, here provides an invaluable insight into the workings of the artistic mind.

This is what Darren Tanti's present exhibition is about. It is experimental in a way, splashing paint, but in very controlled geometric shapes that are depicted with drop shadows, making them pop and seem to be collages. It is a finished unfinished set of works. They are meant to be in the state they are presented. And though most of them do look deep into processes, in the main you get to see the under-painted tones in greys that would, in the normal way of things, be overpainted with colour. One particular painting, a favourite, Judith after Caravaggio, is mostly cartoon, with the face laid out in grey tones. That is the most telling of the lot. The others pop and create an enormous show of colours and shapes, but it is the unfinished that this is about. Those influenced by Van Dyke and Simon Vouet, apart from the magnificent Afloat iv, the brilliantly sketched nude which dominates an entire wall.

And, no, there is no need for it to be finished, because as far as I am concerned, and as far as the passion, emotion and verve of the image is concerned: it is.

As per tradition, a posed photo, this time taken by Julian Grech, of the artist, the curator, Shirley and me, against a backdrop of the wonderful unfinished works.

Darren Tanti's exhibition was launched this evening, but it is on until the 6th July. Do not miss it. It is something that has to be experienced first hand.