‘Dream Welding’ Explores The Human Form In Leo Chircop’s Debut Exhibition

Photographer and image-maker Leo Chircop is debuting his first photography exhibition, Dream Welding, at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta.  The exhibition officially opened on 8th January, with a…

Photographer and image-maker Leo Chircop is debuting his first photography exhibition, Dream Welding, at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta. 

The exhibition officially opened on 8th January, with a launch event from 6.30pm to 9.00pm, and will run until 7th February.

Dream Welding presents a striking series of photographs in which portraiture, the human nude and painterly traditions collide. Bodies appear poised in moments of quiet reverie, their forms rendered with an oil-like sheen that blurs the boundary between photography and painting. The compositions are at once intimate and enigmatic, inviting prolonged contemplation.

Central to the series is the presence of the sea, which occupies a transversal position throughout the work. Neither purely subject nor background, the sea functions as both skin and organ of the image, shaping how the body is perceived. Within contemporary discourse surrounding posthumanism and the fluid nature of identity, the sea becomes a powerful metaphor for porosity, transformation and indefiniteness. As philosopher Rosi Braidotti notes in The Posthuman (2013): “Not all of us can say, with any degree of certainty, that we have always been human, or that we are only that.”

Born in Malta in 1996, Leo Chircop is an image-maker whose practice is informed by a background in Art History and a deep interest in contemporary photography. His work has developed through assisting creatives within the fields of contemporary art and image-making, leading him to approach photography as an investigative and conceptual pursuit. Dream Welding marks Chircop’s first public exhibition and debut into the world of photographic practice.

The exhibition is being held at the Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts, Palazzo de La Salle, 219 Republic Street, Valletta. Opening hours are Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 7.00pm, and Saturday from 9.00am to 1.00pm. The galleries are closed on Sundays and public holidays.

Will you be visiting this exhibition?

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