One of my favourite ways to spend time in Gozo is aimlessly wandering through the backstreets of Victoria, exploring the jumble of resplendent houses—from rickety and ramshackle to richly renovated—that jostle for space along narrow streets. The streets twist and turn, disorienting you so that a moment’s inattention can leave you surrounded by golden stone, lost in time and space beneath the colourful balconies and balustrades above your head. Here, deep in the heart of the old city, where families have lived and worked for centuries, there’s a burgeoning scattering of new artistic talent. Traditional spaces have been reinvented, packed with contemporary art and crafts, bringing new life to these quirky streets. Each time I explore, the array of art is different, giving these dusty backstreets a fresh vibrancy time and time again. Whether it’s olive wood shelves in The Upstairs Gallery or a painting of fresh fish for the table by Sarah of Studio 38 that catches my eye, there’s always something new to discover.
Yesterday, deep in this maze of streets, I visited the Prickly Pear Studio d’Art and met Bob Cardona. His series of paintings of old, rusty cars captivated me, encapsulating the quirky rustic charm of an island where you celebrate what you have with self-sufficiency and an unapologetic make-do-and-mend attitude. The rust seems particularly appropriate here, marking the passage of time in modern style, combined with Gozo’s elemental nature. Although an island of magical stories, there’s no King Midas turning stone to gold. Instead, the sea salt and humid air turn metal to rust in a single glance!
Bob was adding brushstrokes to a Gozitan fishing boat captured on canvas. Above his head, a shipwreck stood proud against a royal blue sky set on a golden wall. Below, delicate gems in reds, greens, turquoise, and purple had been wrapped in delicate organic ‘orbits’ of precious metals by jeweller Mogg Robinson. Her creations also combine gems and recycled silver in earthy ‘hewn’ rings, rich with a sense of the age-old rock below. You can visit her nearby studio ‘when the blue door is open’.
And yes, in the Oxfordshire Artweeks hat, it’s the chance to explore the techniques and the inspiration that makes it such a privilege to visit a studio or meet the artist—the opportunity to discover the story of any unique piece. So, I was thrilled to then come across, just around the corner, The Spoon Man!
In St George’s Square, in the shop that used to house Organika (which is now in It-Tokk), I met The Spoon Man, Mark Tudose, who moved to Gozo from Romania eighteen months ago. His intricately carved wooden spoons are explicitly story-laden, with the symbolism of his choice of birds or beasts adding a tale to his talented craftsmanship. On the walls, his partner’s painted silhouettes look ripe with legends and folklore from East European forests, reminding me of Jan Pienowski’s acclaimed illustrations. A series of pretty, pocket-sized painted houses were begging to be bought and made into storybook villages for a new generation of tales bursting to be told in these alleys and lanes.
