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If, today, our world is in crisis, it is because we have forgotten how to correspond. We have engaged, instead, in campaigns of interaction. Parties to interaction face each other with their identities and objectives already in place, and transact in ways that serve, but do nothing to transform, their separate interests. Their difference is given from the start, and remains afterwards. Interaction is thus a between relation. Correspondence, however, goes along -

Ingold 2020, Correspondences p. 9

‘what is this material/object/form telling me?’. This inquisitive companion is constant throughout my practice. I ask it of the found object, just as I do of a finished work. It has become a state of being rather than a stage in a process. In adopting an experimental approach, I carry this meditative state with me throughout my life correspondences and the process of making, working in direct respose to the formal and conceptual qualities of the materials at hand. My job as an artist is to convey that response back to the world along with the world’s unfolding.

Joseph Calleja 2023 





Joseph Calleja (Maltese, born 1981) is a visual artist practising between Scotland and Malta. He relishes working collaboratively through a multidisciplinary approach, teasing out a process of negotiation and interdependence between the essential and the liminal in art. 

Joseph’s practice is influenced by the work of Oliver Beer and Katie Paterson. The work untitled was exhibited with Paterson’s History of Darkness, in an exhibition entitled Mediated Existence dealing with the theme of mediation around the senses and perception.

Joseph’s work has also been the subject of numerous awards and recognition by bodies such as (Saatchi, Channel 4, Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy, Arts Council Malta, Creative Scotland, Tokyo Biennale).  

As part of Lateral Lab’s board  - Joseph works on artistic projects that support contemporary creative responses to the environment through an ecocentric spirit of exploration and international collaboration. He co-founded odekrom with mezzo soprano Clare Ghigo and they work collaboratively in projects relating to music and visual art. In 2023 Joseph started setting up his studio in Malta under the project 73 | 75 | 77.


Solo Exhibitions and Collaborations
Ikħal collaboration with Clare Ghigo. Tokyo Biennale 2023. Chiyoda City, Chuo City, Bunkyo City and Taito City in Tokyo. August - November 2023.  

Stabat Metric - collaboration with Clare Ghigo, supported by Arts Council Malta. July 2020 - January 2021, online with public engagement.

Pictured at Rest - collaboration with Clare Ghigo, curated by Lateral Lab for the project Ways of Thinking featured as part of the Tokyo Olympiad 2020, cultural programme suppored by the British Council and Creative Scotland, May – July 2020, various sites Japan.

As Coastline is to Ocean - artist/co-curator, alongside works by David Cass and Robert Callender, An Talla Solais Gallery, July 2019, Ullapool, Scotland.

Mediated Existence - curated by Naoko Mabon with the support of Ingleby Gallery and Collection Simon Paul, alongside works by I-Chern Lai and Katie Paterson, Sleeper Gallery, October 2016, Edinburgh.

Shards of Zen - intervention at Summerhall, Edinburgh Arts Festival 2013, August 2013, Edinburgh. Stratum - solo exhibition at Weissraum Gallery, September 2012, Kyoto.

Con•stant - collaboration with Jonathan Galea at Tent Gallery, February 2012, Edinburgh.

Out of Site - collaboration with David Cass at the Solar Pavilion for the Edinburgh Arts Festival 2011, August 2011, Edinburgh.

Synderesis - solo exhibition at the National Mining Museum of Scotland, October 2009, Newtongrange, Scotland.

Surtr N Ogygia - collaboration with Thorunn Bjornsdottir at Gladstone’s Gallery, January 2009, Edinburgh.



Selected Collective Exhibitions

Close Interaction, curated by Helen Glassford and Lindsay Bennett, Tatha Gallery, February 2020, Newport-on-Tay, Scotland.

RSA Open Exhibition 2019, Royal Scottish Academy, November 2019, Edinburgh.

Art Check-in, curated by Masahiro Kawanaka, Taneri, September 2019, Seto, Japan.

RSA Open Exhibition 2018, Royal Scottish Academy, July 2018, Edinburgh.

11 Pedestals, 11 Walls, by 11 Artists, curated by Masahiro Kawanaka, Art Spot Korin, June 2018, Kyoto.

Robert Callender: Plastic Beach... Poetry of Everyday, curated by Lateral Lab, City Art Centre, May 2018, Edinburgh.

RSA Open Exhibition 2017, Royal Scottish Academy, July 2017, Edinburgh.

5 Pedestals, 5 Days, by 5 Artists, curated by Masahiro Kawanaka, gallery 6, July 2017, Kobe, Japan.

Hidden Door 2017, curated by David Martin, The Old Leith Theatre, June 2017, Edinburgh.

In Transit, curated by Vince Briffa, March – July 2017, Dusseldorf, Leeuwarden, Vorarlberg.

12 Pedestals, 12 Days, by 12 Artists, curated by Masahiro Kawanaka, galerie Weissraum, May 2017, Kyoto.

Proposition Void, Fettes College November 2014, Edinburgh.

Intersections, Patriothall Gallery, August 2014, Edinburgh.

Equilibrium, Whitespace, October 2013, Edinburgh.

Art Shower 2012, Contemporary Art Space Osaka (CASO), September 2012, Osaka.

Wiċċ imb Wiċċ, curated by Austin Camilleri as part of the Malta International Arts Festival 2012 at St. James Cavalier, featuring works by Tracey Emin and Giuseppe Hysler, July 2012, Valletta.

The Making of It, at the Old Ambulance Depot as part of the Edinburgh Annuale 2012, June 2012, Edinburgh.

23 kg 73cm x 40cm x 46cm, a folding and unfolding travelling exhibition, April 2012, Nagoya, Yamaguchi and Kyoto.

Sensory Worlds, curated by Rachel Harkness at INSPACE, December 2011, Edinburgh.

Drawing Attention, Cupar Arts Festival 2011, October 2011, Cupar, Scotland.

Arboretum, Patriothall Gallery, May 2011, Edinburgh.

Concrete Flows, a response to the site of Cumbernauld Town Centre, March 2011, Cumbernauld, Scotland.

RSA New Contemporaries 2011, selected Scottish graduates from 2010 degree shows at the Royal Scottish Academy, March 2011, Edinburgh.

Interlopers, An Lanntair, January 2011, Stornoway, Scotland.

Now Here, Point Hotel, December 2010, Edinburgh.

Vista, the Victoria Contemporary Art Tour, curated by Mario Cassar, November 2010, Gozo, Malta.

The House of the Nobleman, curated by Wolfe von Lenkievicz, Victoria Golembiovskaya and Rebecca Wilson, with the participation of New Sensations 2010, Saatchi Gallery and Channel 4, featuring works by leading contemporary artists, October 2010, London.

Floored, for The Edinburgh Arts Festival 2010 at Meadowbank Arts Complex, August 2010, Edinburgh. Film Strips, Film House, September 2008, Edinburgh.

Second Nature, Skateraw, Richard Demarco’s Archive, September 2008, Dunbar, Scotland.


Residency

Wasps Residency, 2020.

An Talla Solais Residency 2018.

The Robert Callender International Residency for Emerging Artists 2012.



Awards

RSA Wasps Award 2019. Two weeks residency at Admiral’s House on the Isle of Skye.

Hope Scott Trust Grant 2019. New work towards As Coastline is to Ocean.

An Talla Solais Award at the RSA Open Exhibition 2017.

Selected from Edinburgh College of Art degree show 2012 for the The Robert Callender International Residency for Young Artists (RCIRYA).

Andrew Grant Major Travelling Award 2011.

Shortlisted from the art colleges in the UK by Mat Collishaw, Rachel Whiteread; Darren Flook; Alex Farquharson; and Soraya Rodriguez for the work Tixref to participate at the Saatchi New Sensations 2010.

First ranking at the Malta Arts Scholarship Awards 2010.

The James Cumming Award for Draughtsmanship 2010 for the work Tixref.

Selected from the Scottish Art Colleges degree shows 2010, for The New Contemporaries 2011 by the Royal Scottish Academy.

The Edinburgh Printmakers Award 2010.




Education

TQFE Art & Design PG Dip - The University of Stirling. 2020 – 2021

MFA Art Space & Nature, distinction - The University of Edinburgh. 2010 – 2012

BA Hons Drawing and Painting, first class - Edinburgh College of Art. 2006 - 2010

BA Combined Studies - Edinburgh College of Art. 2005 - 2006

Philosophy and Theology - Angelicum Pontificia Universita` Roma. 2000 – 2005

History of Art - University of Malta. 1999 – 2000




ARTIST CV




     

All artwork © Joseph Calleja | Please do not download, reproduce or share without permission

Studio 73|75|77
77 Mgarr Road Qala Gozo Malta