Team

Matthew Attard (Malta, 1987). His practice investigates images as social and cultural constructs. Matthew is strongly interested in situating his practice within the realm of contemporary drawing through a multimedia approach that highlights drawing’s versatile, performative, and time-based nature. His interest in understanding the gaze as a form of drawing - its perceptual, physiological and cultural dimensions – are the focus of his practice-based PhD research at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, funded by the Malta Arts Scholarship scheme.

Raised in Malta, in 2009 he moved to Venice and collaborated with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the USA Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Later, he came back to Malta where in 2018 he obtained his Masters by Research Degree from the Digital Arts Department of the University of Malta. He first exhibited his work in a double solo show organised in 2014 at Galleria Michela Rizzo in Venice. Since then, he has exhibited in Venice, Rome, Valletta, Genoa, London, Beijing and Los Angeles among other cities. Also, in 2017 he was selected for the 3rd edition of the Le Latitudini dell’Arte Biennale, at the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, while in 2018 he was awarded the Under 30 Euromobil Prize at ArteFiera, Bologna. 

He was selected three times to show in the context of Ten Artists to Watch at LACDA, Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts, and in 2019 he was invited to participate in Artissima Telephone at the OGR spaces in Turin. Recently, he was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize 2021. Rajt ma rajtx… naf li rajt is one of Matthew’s major solo shows, curated by Elyse Tonna at Valletta Contemporary in 2021. In 2022 he was commissioned the work Here’s How I Did Not See What You Wanted Me To See as part of the OPEN digital residency at Blitz, Valletta, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini. His most recent solo show Ship of Fools took place in March 2023 at Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice.

Elyse Tonna (b.1990) is a curator and architect based in Malta. Her practice spans various disciplines including visual arts, architecture, design, cultural policy, placemaking and cultural heritage. Currently, her curatorial research interests relate to ecological thinking, the post-/Anthropocene, speculative futures, new materialisms, living heritage and threatened landscapes. She overlaps these with spatial awareness and sensibility to create site/context-specific, immersive and sensorial experiences.

With over a decade of dedicated work in the cultural and creative sectors, her portfolio encompasses roles and collaborations with various entities including Arts Council Malta (ACM), Heritage Malta, Valletta Cultural Agency, Spazju Kreattiv, Gabriel Caruana Foundation (GCF), Unfinished Art Space, Malta Society of Arts (MSA), Valletta Contemporary, no.site.studio and others.

Tonna is currently the co-curator of I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP: the project selected for the Malta Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2024, commissioned by Arts Council Malta. She is also the co-curator and creative director of the GCF, a collaborator with Unfinished Art Space, a co-founder of no.site.studio and is engaged in multiple curatorial commissions with various institutions.

Tonna contributed towards the development and implementation of several initiatives such as the SPRING Programme for Emerging Artists with the GCF, Constellation Malta and baħħ blu for the Valletta ECoC 2018 Programme and the Regional Cultural Strategies with Arts Council Malta. fuse, a multi-sited public art project she created and developed, was shortlisted for the ACM Best Project in the Community and shortlisted as one of the Top 75 Most Inspiring Projects of New European Bauhaus 2021.

She is currently a Board Member of the GCF and chairs the Visual Arts Subcommittee of the Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association. She was a Committee Member of the MSA (2014-2019) and e-NGO ACT (2018-2023). Her international engagements include fellowships with the Salzburg Global Forum and the Global Cultural Relations Platform.

Sara Dolfi Agostini (b. 1983) is an Italian American contemporary art curator, writer, and lecturer based in Naples (Italy) and Malta. Over the years, she has researched visual culture, the politics of representation and the theory of image circulation, and curated exhibitions offline and online, public art commissions and a digital residency program – all expanding an interest in different formulations of site-specificity in the virtual domain and in real life. After collaborations with the Biennale Manifesta (2008), the International Sculpture Biennale of Carrara (2010), Magnum Photos (2012) and Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (2013-14), she was appointed co-curator of the public art commission ArtLine Milano, initiated by the City of Milan (2013-16). Later, she was curator of exhibitions and public programs at Blitz Valletta in Malta (2018-23), and she is currently curator and coordinator of the catalogue raisonné at Fondazione Paul Thorel in Naples (2021-ongoing). Since 2008, she has been a guest contributor for international newspapers and magazines, including Il Sole 24 ORE, Flash Art magazine, and Art Basel. In addition, she has been adjunct faculty member for Masters programs at Fondazione Modena Arti Visive in Modena (2016-2021), IAAD in Turin (2017), and has lectured at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago (2016); the Art Program / World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC (2016), the University of Malta (2017); Il Sole 24 ORE Master School (2010-17) and NABA, both in Milan (2009-2013). Between 2017 and 2021 she also served as honorary member of the advisory board on photography of the Triennale Museum in Milan.

Maria Galea (b.1990) is a Maltese cultural manager, strategist and art professional with a career spanning over a decade in the visual arts and cultural sector. Currently, she serves as the President of MEIA (Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association), where her advocacy is dedicated to Malta's creative community.

As the founder of ARTZ ID, Malta’s largest visual arts network, Maria fosters diverse creative collaborations and partnerships aimed at nurturing growth within the sector. Additionally, she directs Marie Gallery5 & Art Advisory, which she established in 2015, representing and showcasing Malta’s most renowned artists, both locally and internationally. Notably, since 2017, the gallery also represents the prestigious estate of the late artist Isabelle Borg, holds an extensive portfolio of art advisory projects and an extensive exhibition program.

Maria is recognised as a Young Cultural Innovators Fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar (2019) and was appointed as a mentor for the Creative Futures Program at the University of the Arts London in 2021. Her experience extends to serving as a board member and consultant on numerous private and public projects within the visual arts sector.

She has also been recognised with a number of awards including the Best Initiative during the COVID Pandemic (2022) award, along with nominations for Best Creative Enterprise and Best Cultural Contributor. Maria recently completed a Master's Degree in Arts and Cultural Enterprise at Central Saint Martins in London, with a focused study on the socio-economic impact of the creative sectors.

Michela Rizzo founded her gallery in 2004 with the intention to inspire new life into the contemporary Venetian cultural scene, which had been mostly dominated by commercial art galleries. After moving to Palazzo Palumbo Fossati for six years, the gallery settled in its current location of the former breweries on Giudecca in 2013.

Over the years, Galleria Michela Rizzo evolved a high-profile programme through gallery exhibitions, partnerships with major local and international museums and institutions, and collaborations with historical, established, and emerging artists. The strength of Galleria Michela Rizzo lies in the synergy between the Venetian roots and international connections.

The relevance of history, the contemporary socio-political scenarios, and the relationship between humanity and the environment emerge in the practices of major artists such as Fabio Mauri, León Ferrari, Hamish Fulton, Nanni Balestrini, Antoni Muntadas, Vito Acconci, Roman Opalka, Brian Eno, Barry X Ball, and David Tremlett.

The correlation of time with space, nature, and landscapes are some of the themes examined by Francesco Jodice, David Rickard, Michael Hoepfner, Antonio Rovaldi, Mariateresa Sartori, Andrea Mastrovito, Kateřina Šedá, Giorgia Fincato, Federico De Leonardis, Marcela Cernadas, Aldo Runfola, Maurizio Pellegrin and Silvano Tessarollo.

New technologies are then explored by the gallery’s younger artists such as Alessandro Sambini, Ryts Monet and Matthew Attard, who question the contemporary overproduction of images and information, and their consequent overconsumption.

Michela Rizzo has produced numerous historical exhibitions in collaboration with institutions, such as: Lawrence Carroll at Museo Correr (2008, Venice), Tony Cragg in 4D at the Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art (2010, Venice), and Barry X Ball at Ca' Rezzonico (2011, Venice) among others. In 2017, Galleria Michela Rizzo collaborated with the Municipality of Pisa for a series of exhibitions at Santa Maria della Spina, with site-specific installations by Wolfgang Laib and Richard Nonas