Mark Sagona presents Crossings, a new exploration of the beyond

Visual artist and academic Mark Sagona returns this October with Crossings, an exhibition bringing together a new series of thirty-two mixed-media works created during the past ten months. The collection will be on view at Gemelli Art Gallery in Ta’ Qali from 10 to 26 October 2026.

Curated by François Zammit, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring Zammit’s critical essay. The publication is being issued by Midsea Books in collaboration with the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta.

With Crossings, Sagona turns his attention towards territories that exist beyond the boundaries of what can readily be seen or understood. The exhibition continues the artist’s ongoing investigation of the relationship between lived experience, memory, intuition and imagination, creating a body of work in which the visible world becomes a point of departure rather than an end in itself. The title alludes to movement between states and spaces — between the tangible and intangible, the conscious and subconscious, the known and the unknown. Sagona’s works appear to emerge from this space of transition, giving visual presence to experiences and sensations that are difficult to define through conventional representation.

With Crossings, Sagona turns his attention towards territories that exist beyond the boundaries of what can readily be seen or understood

There is a noticeable shift in the artist’s visual vocabulary in this latest body of work. While remaining connected to the concerns that have informed his earlier practice, Sagona has developed a more instinctive and organic approach to both image and material. Drawing and painting frequently overlap, while different media are layered, worked and reworked. Strong, gestural interventions coexist with quieter passages of texture and accumulated marks, allowing each work to retain a sense of movement, uncertainty and discovery.

The resulting works occupy an ambiguous territory. They can suggest landscapes, fragments, presences or spaces, yet resist being reduced to a single interpretation. Their atmosphere is often enigmatic and immersive, reflecting Sagona’s interest in experiences that lie beyond rational explanation. At their core, however, they remain concerned with something fundamentally human: the attempt to make sense of existence and our place within it.

Diptych Portrait

For curator François Zammit, the exhibition reflects a movement away from the material and empirical towards a more inward form of enquiry. He describes Sagona’s project as a search for “an internalised truth” and connects it with the Romantic pursuit of the sublime — a confrontation with the immensity of existence that can evoke both wonder and unease. In this reading, intuition becomes central to the artist’s process, allowing him to move beyond the boundaries imposed by formal artistic and academic training.

Crossings therefore becomes more than a collection of individual works. It is a record of an ongoing passage: an attempt to navigate uncertain territory and to give shape to what cannot easily be articulated. Rather than offering definitive answers, the exhibition invites viewers to enter that uncertainty for themselves.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on Saturday, 10 October 2026, at Gemelli Art Gallery, Ta’ Qali, and will be open to the public until Monday, 26 October. This project is supported by VisitMalta, Ayu, The Point, Atelier del Restauro, M. Demajo Wines & Spirits and Midsea Books Ltd.