Every Saint Has A Past & Every Sinner Has A Future

andreas0451
May 21
3 min read

CO-MA presents his haunting second solo exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Castille Place, Valletta.

Exhibition: Every Saint Has A Past & Every Sinner Has A Future

Artist: CO-MA

Curator: Lily Agius

Venue: Space C, Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Castille Place, Valletta

Date: 9th May – 29th June 2025

CO-MA’s Latest Body of Work that is Heavy, yet Tactile…and Utterly Uncompromising.

Temple had the pleasure of attending CO-MA’s exhibition, Every Saint Has A Past & Every Sinner Has A Future, at the Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Castille Place, Valletta on Friday 9th May, where Maltese artist CO-MA presented seven monumental works in oil on canvas. It’s the artist’s interpretation of the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Sloth, Anger, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, and Envy.

Each piece is painted mainly in black and white, with a splash of red, some dark green, some blues and more than a hint of subversion. The colours alone were enough to pull the viewer into an uneasy intimacy. An intimacy that comes with compulsion, addiction and infatuation.

These pieces are not presented merely as things to avoid but more as a celebration of life and living, breathing disturbances. Are these pieces devoted to human need or want?

In short, this body of work is raw, and it dominates.

Do these pieces represent vice or weakness? And are they the artist’s or are they ours?

CO-MA is a self-taught Maltese artist who launched his first collection at the Lily Agius Gallery in November 2021. CO-MA normally uses charcoal, but for this body of work, he has pivoted to oil on canvas. Invoking chiaroscuro, which primarily favours strong contrasts between light and dark, this collection has a stark, thick rawness that ties very much into CO-MA as an artist, who believes in material honesty that demands attention. This new collection makes us ponder the very nature of the human condition without pandering to any church or denomination.

The exhibition venue is in itself a space to behold. Held within the limestone bastion of St James Cavalier, Space C at Spazju Kreattiv, it offers a rare blend of raw architecture and considered restraint. Its clean walls, exposed stone, and soft shadows serves as the perfect backdrop to the raw intensity that leaps at you from the canvas. Located at Castille Place in the heart of Valletta, the space carries the weight of history without spectacle. It allows art, especially something as stark and unrelenting as CO-MA’s latest collection to breathe and allow us, the viewer, to identify and ferment our own internal struggle.

“The canvas itself can barely contain the fury. It doesn’t invite interpretation. It scorches the sockets”.

With WHEN DOES IT END? | LUST, desire is not glamorous here. It is restless. Unsettled. SMOKE IN THE AIR | SLOTH, is the opposite: a figure slipping back into the board itself, posture seemingly relaxed. On the face of it, it could be anyone’s typical lazy Sunday, but there is more at play here. This is a slow erosion, where the subject could almost be seen as losing consciousness.

VENGEANCE IS MINE | WRATH is arguably the darkest. This is pure anger. This is a beautifully composed piece, artistically, but the piece itself is anything but. This is a composition that feels more attacked than painted. Here, we can see that rage is eroding the posse from within. Each face united in its anger and fear (very much POV) is represented by a single distressed, yet useless, hand. The canvas itself can barely contain the fury. It doesn’t invite interpretation. It scorches the sockets.

CO-MA is an artist who practices a traditional craft in a new and visceral way. This body of work is cerebral, carnal and arresting and a reflection of today’s world. It forces the viewer into some form of introspection. A difficult look at the fragility of the human condition. A look in the mirror, perhaps. These paintings don’t preach, they simply exist, and in doing so, they make themselves unforgettable.