Mark Mallia (20 April 1965 – 23 July 2024) was a Maltese self-taught

outsider artist Outsider art is art made by self-taught individuals who are untrained and untutored in the traditional arts with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. The term ''outsider art'' was coined in 1972 as the title ...

who worked with abstract and portrait paintings on a variety of mixed media and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

sculptures, who worked in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Biography

Mallia was born in

Pietà, Malta Pietà () is a small harbour town in the Eastern Region of Malta, located near the outskirts of the capital city Valletta. Etymology The name ''Tal-Pietà'' is derived from Italian, and means "Pity", referring to the pity of Our Lady of Sorro ...

, on 20 April 1965. His signature style imparts an aggressive energy to his art, fed by his maniacal obsessions that metamorphose into mischief, audacity, insouciance, and mystery. Mallia was known for his maverick character which was useful in creating a diverse spectrum of works. Major exhibitions of his work have included various solos in Malta such as Open Closet, Postcards from Beyond, Black Canvas and Zabach exhibitions, together with collective exhibitions such as Forgotten Spaces, at the Royal Windsor Racecourse UK, at

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, and at the

Sporting Club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

. Mallia was also known for raising funds and awareness of

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

in Malta. Mallia collaborated with

Angelo Dalli Angelo Dalli (born 14 April 1978) is a computer scientist specialising in artificial intelligence, a serial entrepreneur, and business angel investor. Early life and education Dalli was born in Malta and grew up in the town of Birżebbuġa. Dall ...

during 2018–2019 on exploring the new space between art and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

using the Universal Machine Artist system, teaching AI the concepts of creativity of visual expression. Mallia died at

Mater Dei Hospital Mater Dei Hospital (MDH; ), also known simply as '' Mater Dei'', is an acute general and teaching hospital in Msida, Malta. It was opened in 2007, replacing St. Luke's Hospital. It is a public hospital affiliated to the University of Malta, offer ...

in Malta, on 23 July 2024, two days after suffering an

aneurysm An aneurysm is an outward :wikt:bulge, bulging, likened to a bubble or balloon, caused by a localized, abnormal, weak spot on a blood vessel wall. Aneurysms may be a result of a hereditary condition or an acquired disease. Aneurysms can also b ...

. He was 59. The

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

Fram2 Fram2 was a private human spaceflight mission operated by SpaceX with a Crew Dragon spacecraft on behalf of entrepreneur Chun Wang. During the mission, Wang and his all-civilian crew— Jannicke Mikkelsen, Rabea Rogge and Eric Philips—wer ...

mission carried aurora-related artwork by Mallia and Etienne Farrell in a polar orbit in space.

References

External links

*
111 Art Gallery website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallia, Mark 1965 births 2024 deaths 20th-century male artists 20th-century Maltese painters 20th-century Maltese sculptors 21st-century male artists 21st-century Maltese painters 21st-century sculptors Abstract painters Male painters Male sculptors Maltese activists 21st-century Maltese people Outsider artists People from Pietà, Malta Portrait painters Deaths from aneurysm