About Me
I am a Canadian painter, art historian, and writer. As a painter, it's important to me that viewers understand my artistic perspective. I am passionate about telling stories through my work. Here's more information about my practice as a painter:
Through painting, I explore observations of the everyday, often focused on figures in action, oblivious to observation, and scenes that would otherwise go unnoticed. At times, my work can explore places that figures inhabit, things they use, and close-ups of daily life. My work looks at my cultural identities as a second-generation Maltese/Italian Canadian and the qualities that are at once unique to these cultures but relatable across many others. This can include explorations into family photo albums, photos from my travels, and familial observations. My work also explores themes of childhood, nostalgia, mundanity, and community, both of my own and of others’ that feel familiar based on our shared human experiences.
My Maltese identity has encouraged this idea, as the geography of the country has created conditions for strong cross-cultural sharing. Being raised in such a culture and in a diverse community in Canada, I’ve seen that the human experience does not differ as much as we think it does across cultures and identities. This has been a useful tool for me to examine cultural similarities in my life and to present the world as I know it in hopes that people will look at it and see glimpses of their own lives, families, and identities.
My work also explores what it means to be from a place and not belong to it, or vice versa. It explores my own cultural identities as someone who lives in diaspora, and ways that I connect to my personal cultures, the land it inhabits, and the rituals I was raised with but not around. The goal of this is to reflect on my own heritage - specifically Maltese culture - and how the culture is at once resilient, at risk of cultural loss, and highly influenced by the surrounding Mediterranean.
CV
EDUCATION
2025 – University of Toronto, MA, Art History
2023 – University of Toronto, HBA in Art & Art History and Professional Writing & Communication
2023 – Sheridan Institute of Advanced Learning, Diploma in Painting (Art & Art History, joint program)
2016 – Academy of Art San Francisco, Pre-College Art Experience Certificate
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
Faces in Places, VAM Creative Resident Show, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
World Art Day, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Why Do You Create? Juried Show, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
2023
Portraits of Mississauga, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
Instructors Show, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga ON
The Middle Child, Women’s Art Association of Canada, Toronto, ON
Aurora Exhibition, Health and Humanities, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON Everyday Encounters: Recent Points of View, Blackwood Gallery, Mississauga, ON Chromafilia, Erindale Theatre, Mississauga, ON
Why Do You Create? Juried Show, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
2022
Raw Artists Portal, Exhibition Place, Toronto, ON
The Middle Child, Women’s Art Association of Canada, Toronto, ON
2021
PandeMINIum, Sheridan College, Oakville, ON
RESIDENCIES
2024
Gozo Contemporary Residency, Gozo, Malta
Visual Arts Mississauga Creative Residency, Mississauga, ON
EXHIBITION CURATION
2024
Now Streaming, Visual Arts Mississauga, Mississauga, ON
2023
Chromafilia, Erindale Theatre, Mississauga, ON
2022
The Middle Child, Women’s Art Association of Canada, Toronto, ON
PandeMINIum, Sheridan College, Oakville, ON
AWARDS
2024
Finalist, Emerging – Visual Arts: Traditional Forms, Mississauga Arts Awards (MARTYS)
2023
Faculty Award for Excellence in Painting 4, University of Toronto and Sheridan College
2020-23
Dean’s List Scholar, University of Toronto
2022
Faculty Award for Excellence in Painting 3, University of Toronto and Sheridan College
Dr. Annie Smith Travel Scholarship, University of Toronto and Sheridan College
ART PUBLICATIONS
2021-24 – BUFF
2023 – Aurora Exhibition Guidebook
2021 – Arbor Room Magazine