statement
rhea micallef-gavin is a british-maltese painter whose still life work draws on the symbolic tradition of seventeenth-century dutch vanitas. her paintings place objects in deliberate relation — a tulip beside a cigarette, a pearl against a skull — and let the tension between them do the work. lemons for their mediterranean iconography, shells for the feminine forms they mirror, cigarettes for the paradox of contemporary life.
working in oils, she approaches painting as a curatorial act — the selection and positioning of things so that meaning emerges in the space between them. her practice sits alongside writing and radio, where the same interest holds: what objects, images, and words reveal about the culture they come from. her work has been exhibited across london and europe, and featured in vogue italia, forbes, 10magazine, and love magazine.
Contact
Catalogue available upon request — always open to commissions and custom orders
reach out here: rhea.micallef.gavin@gmail.com
