WATCH | Edith Devaney: ‘The MICAS bill should be as strong as those in London or New York’

With years of experience at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and a long-standing relationship with David Hockney, Edith Devaney’s next project is Malta’s newest contemporary art space. 

As artistic director, Devaney wants excellence. To her, it’s the only way that MICAS can really grab the attention of the international art world. And her artistic vision could not be clearer. 

“When we’re putting on exhibitions here, the programme should be as strong as a programme I would deliver in London, Paris or New York. It should be as good as that,” she tells me as we sit down inside the beautifully-transformed space within the Floriana bastions where MICAS is situated.  

This commitment to excellence applies both to bringing international artists to Malta and to showcasing Maltese artists. Devaney says she wants to bring Maltese artists who are operating at a particular standard of excellence to MICAS, providing them with a window onto the rest of the global art scene. 

MICAS’s second exhibition is testament to this. The Space We Inhabit, which launches on Saturday 14 June, will feature works from six established Maltese artists—Caesar Attard, Vince Briffa, Austin Camilleri, Joyce Camilleri, Anton Grech and Pierre Portelli.  

“What I was looking for is Maltese artists who were just at the top of their game and who were creating work of such interest and significance that the majority of them already have international recognition,” she says. 

Devaney says MICAS will not have a permanent collection, instead featuring rotating exhibitions to maintain vibrancy and relevance to social changes, a model she believes will be well-received and allows the museum to be responsive to contemporary art trends, citing other institutions that operate similarly.  

The museum’s unique architecture helps serve this function. Housed in a massive, 17th century fort, the space integrates the old with the new while presenting a creative challenge. 

“When I first got my head around what these galleries were, I have to admit I had a moment of slight panic. I’ve never worked in a space that’s not a white cube,” she says.  

What started off as a challenge turned into a source of inspiration for international and local artists. “The space has actually inspired them to think about how to make new work to fill it, how to gather some of their collection to show here. All of these things have informed how I feel about it.” 

Another exhibition set to launch later in the year is one that celebrates American modernist Milton Avery and his contemporary influence. Devaney says this would be a big exhibition anywhere—Avery is an important modernist colourist who was famous during his lifetime and celebrated by other artists. His influence on other artists was profound, particularly on figures like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Adolph Gottlieb. 

Devaney, whose subject is abstract expressionism, argues that Avery's influence on colour field painting was such that abstract expressionism would have turned out differently without it. 

The exhibition will feature a group of Avery paintings, specifically just over 20 works covering his entire career. The exhibition will also include responses from seven international contemporary artists from Europe and America, including his daughter March Avery, who will each show around three paintings. 

The following is an excerpt of the interview. 

Follow the full interview on maltatoday.com.mt and our socials.  

You spent many years working at the Royal Academy of Art in London and you also have a long-standing relationship with David Hockney. What was it about this project that made you want to come on board? 

I was introduced to chairperson Phyllis Muscat through a mutual friend, who told me she’s doing this extraordinary thing in Malta. I met her soon after that. She had just started managing this whole project and I became very interested. The idea of a start-up, not-for-profit museum is so unusual in the art world that I was fascinated by it. I became involved in a very small way, coming over to do talks and get involved in things. I kept a watch on what they were doing and continued to be in contact with the team here. Eventually, the idea of becoming fully involved… I couldn’t resist it anymore. I thought, what an opportunity for anyone.  

How will MICAS bring more artists to the international contemporary art scene? 

The only way that we can really get the attention of the international art world is to put on exhibitions of excellence. It’s the only way to do it; there’s no other fast track. Before we opened, we announced the programme for the first two years and now we’re working on the next two.  It has to have consistent excellence and I think we have to really make a noise. We’re geographically distant from what may be considered the centre of the arts. I mean, I don’t really buy that anymore, that Paris or London or New York is the centre of the arts. I think it’s much more than that. It’s much more spread across the rest of the world. But for us to find our place, for us to have a voice there, we have to have those consistent exhibitions. It will be expected of us that we celebrate where we are in these exhibitions and that we present Maltese artists who have already got that international focus in their work.   

There is no fixed collection at the museum. There will be rotating exhibitions over the years. How do you think people will see this? 

I think it will be well-received because it’s ever-changing. The thing about a permanent collection, and having only a permanent collection, is that once you’ve seen it, you’re done. What we want to do is to have a much more vibrant and continuous engagement with what’s happening in contemporary art. 

There’s always that problem with contemporary art as well. Take the MoMA, which was established in the 1930s in New York by Alfred Barr. At what stage does the contemporary art that he bought then stop being contemporary? At some stage, you realise that it’s becoming modernist art. What we want to do here is to keep that sense of vibrancy and change by not having a collection. That gives you enormous freedom because you can respond to all the different trends and impulses that are happening across the art world. Contemporary art is so rooted in social change. The art changes because artists respond to it in a very particular way. I think that’s what will keep us current and relevant.  

Do you imagine this museum going beyond the visual arts and expanding into, say, dance or music, or is this not in its remit right now? 

It’s not in our remit. Of course, contemporary art is wide. The idea of digital art or sound-based art and installation and performance art… all of that’s possible. Absolutely. We’re looking at all of these things.