Maltese painter Nickie Sultana is set to launch her latest solo exhibition, "Valletta Abstracted," at Teatru Salesjan in Sliema this November. The exhibition will run from November 2025 through January 2026, showcasing her newest collection inspired by the iconic Valletta skyline.
The new body of work emerges from Sultana's repeated observations of Malta's capital city from various perspectives. "Returning again and again, to the same view, as if it were a refrain in a song I can't stop humming," Sultana explained, describing her artistic process. She captures the skyline in its many moods - "golden, fractured by light, softened by haze, or blazing with sunset fire" - particularly as viewed from boat trips entering the harbor.
Rather than pursuing photographic accuracy in her paintings, Sultana deliberately chooses abstraction and variation to explore deeper themes of perception and memory. "The repetition becomes a meditation on perception, memory, and time: a dialogue between constancy and change," she writes about her approach to the series. This methodology allows her to capture not just the visual reality of Valletta, but the emotional and temporal experience of observing the historic city.
Born in 1973, Sultana brings extensive artistic training to her work, having studied both classical and contemporary art at the prestigious Lorenzo de Medici and Leonardo da Vinci academies in Florence, Italy. Her career spans nearly three decades, with ten solo exhibitions since 1995 and participation in multiple group shows both in Malta and internationally. Her paintings are held in private collections around the world, and she has earned recognition in the International Dictionary of Artists Who Painted Malta.
The exhibition "Valletta Abstracted" will be hosted at Teatru Salesjan, located in Sliema. Art enthusiasts can visit the show Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and on Sundays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM throughout its November 2025 to January 2026 run.
