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Anna Calleja (b.1997) is a Maltese artist. Calleja’s work draws from her personal experience a vision of a world suspended between uncertainty, longing and the distance of memory. Her interest lies in dualities; the tension and dissonance between comfort and melancholy, isolation and connection, love and grief. Calleja’s painting technique is reflective of this in its reliance on a tentative balance between order and disorder in the paint surface.
The images begin from her personal archive; both real and constructed, cataloguing places held as home for a moment. Within her paintings, she connects to the current of art history via a dialog with what came before; she transforms recurring archetypes, catholic and patriarchal motifs within the language of figurative painting and employs them in an analysis of the present.
Calleja studied Fine Art at Falmouth University and has
since exhibited internationally in London, Paris, Berlin, New York City, and Dallas. In 2022, she was awarded the Premju Ghal-Arti for Best Young Artist by Arts Council Malta.
Currently showing at
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night
21 November - 21 December 2024
Sim Smith
Where: Sim Smith Gallery, 6 Camberwell Passage, London, SE5 0AX
Opening hours: Thursday 10am – 4pm, Friday 10am - 4pm, and Saturday 11am - 5pm and by appointment.
The Great Women Artists x Palazzo Monti Residency No.5
30 November - 21 December 2024
Anna Calleja, Tali Lennox, Sophie Ruigrok
Where: Piazza Tebaldo Brusato, 22, 25121 Brescia BS, Italy
By appointment only
Book your visit at: ciao@palazzomonti.org
Selfie, oil on panel, 2023
AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
The Great Women Artists Residency x Palazzo Monti, Italy, 2024
Best Young Artist of the Year, Premju Ghal-Arti, Arts Council Malta, 2022
Best Emerging Artist of the Year, ArtzID Community Awards, 2022
Winsor and Newton Young Artist Award, ROI Annual Exhibition 2020
C-A-S-T Residency, Helston, UK. 2019
Goddards Retreat, 2023, 2024
Midas Award at the Newlyn Art Gallery and the Exchange, UK. 2019
Malta Arts Scholarship, 2017-2020
EXHIBITIONS
2024
The Great Women Artists Residency x Palazzo Monti, curated by Katy Hessel, Brescia, Italy.
One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, solo exhibition, Sim Smith Gallery, London, UK
The Unexpected, curated by Daniel Malarkey, TwentyTwo, London, UK
In the Know Show, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, USA
Malta Biennale, Grandmasters Palace, Valletta, Malta
Transparency, Lyndsey Ingram, London, UK
2023
Breakthrough, James Fuentes Gallery, New York City, USA
De Profundis Oscar Wilde, curated by Daniel Malarkey, L’Hotel, Paris, France
Looking Like Fire, Sim Smith Gallery, London, UK
Far Reach, R Gallery, Mahalla, Berlin, Germany
Art on a Postcard for War Child UK, Soho Revue, London, UK
Oikos Logia, R Gallery, Sliema, Malta
London Art Fair, Beaux Arts Bath, London, UK
2022
Christmas Show, New Craftsman Gallery, St. Ives, UK
Winners: Award Winning artists 2020-2022, Mall Galleries, London, UK
Summer Auction, Art on a postcard, The Other Art Fair, King's Cross, UK
Works on Paper 4, Blue Shop Cottage, London, UK
Domestic Bliss, Beaux Arts Bath, Bath, UK
Sea Sunset Moon: Variations on Solitude, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta
Mara, Bureau Iniala, Valletta, Malta
2021
Anna Calleja: On Hold, New Craftsman Gallery, St. Ives, UK
Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK
Homebound, solo exhibition, Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta, Malta
Launch Exhibition, Morgans, Falmouth, UK
Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK
2020
Extraordinary Postcards for Extraordinary Times, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK
Falmouth Showcase, Degree Show, Falmouth University, Falmouth, UK
2019
Environments: A Tate Staff Exhibition, Tate St. Ives, UK
Tate Collective Producer at Otobong Nkanga: Ustudio, Tate St. Ives, UK
Exhibition: Anna Calleja and Will Calver, Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives, UK
Proposals for Change, Curated by Krijn de Koning, Falmouth, UK
b.1997
TEXT
2 December 2024: Wallpaper, Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watch, Emily Steer
5 May 2024: Times of Malta, What does an archive dedicated to women look like?, Lara Zammit
April 2024: The Collector n.12, Interview with Sofia Baldi Pighi
4 April 2024: ArtForum, Nights of Malta, Agnieszka Gratza
14 March 2024: Art Dependence, Malta's First Art Biennale opened, and it is Impressive
6 December 2023: ArtForum, Details for First Ever Malta Biennale Announced
1 December 2023: Artsy, 5 Artists on Our Radar in December 2023
17 April 2022: Times of Malta, Exhibition explores the dual nature of solitude, Lara Zammit
19 March 2022: Lovin Malta, Sea Sunset Moon: Collective Exhibition On The Exploration Of Solitude At Spazju Kreattiv
26 October 2021: Booooooom, Artist Spotlight: Anna Calleja
7 April 2021: artpaper press, Two places, two truths, Gabriel Zammit
21 March 2021: Times of Malta, The comfort and the uncertainty of being Homebound
3 March 2021: Malta Independent, Emerging artist Anna Calleja to exhibit at the MSA
23 September 2020: BBC Spotlight, Interview about Extraordinary Postcards for Extraordinary Times, an exhibition at Newlyn Art Gallery
25 November 2020: Mall Galleries, Royal Institute of Oil Painters Prize & Award Winners 2020: Young Artist Award
19 Jul 2020: Malta artpaper, Interview with Anna Calleja, Margerita Pule
3 July 2020: Cast, Touch: A Conversation between Dan Howard-Birt, Catalina Maria Ungureanu, Anna Calleja and Elizabeth Langley.
Emerging artists Anna Calleja and Sophie Perkins in Conversation, Tate St. Ives, UK.
EDUCATION
BA Fine Art, Falmouth University (First Class Hons), 2017-2020
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