Au MICAS, l'architecture concurrence l'exposition de Reggie Burrows Hodge
The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) presents "Mela," the first European solo exhibition of American painter Reggie Burrows Hodges, featuring around thirty new works inspired by the artist's extended stay on the island in 2024-2025. The exhibition, curated by Edith Devaney, includes four thematic series—Labor, Seascapes, Buoy, and a sound installation—alongside the monumental canvas *Mamajamma* (2025), which reinterprets Caravaggio's *The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist* as a Maltese water-polo match.
The exhibition matters because it highlights the challenge of adapting Hodges' intimate, atmospheric painting style to the vast, fortress-like architecture of MICAS, a 17th-century fortification converted into a museum. While the architecture enhances installations, it competes with the paintings, dispersing the viewer's focus across multiple levels and high ceilings, raising questions about the relationship between contemporary art and historic exhibition spaces.