Education
2002-2006 PhD in Fine Arts at University of the Arts London.
1995-1997 M.Ed. (Art) at University of Malta.
1987-1991 B.Ed. (Hons) at University of Malta,
specialising in art and art history.
Selected solo exhibitions
2023 That Other Place, curated by Maren Richter, Valletta Contemporary, Malta
2017 A Safe Haven, Art Gallery of Burlington, Ontario, Canada
2016 No Place like Home, EU Delegation Building, Washington DC, US
2016 Drawings, Architecture Project Building, Valletta
2014-15 Raising a Revolutionary, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw
2013 Museum Haus Hővener, Brilon, Germany
2012 Installation, Zona Imaginaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2011-12 Aux Armes, in collaboration with Baptiste Debombourg,
St James Cavalier, Valletta
2011 Big Boys, Nakagawa Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
2008 Reading Cabinets, St James Cavalier, Valletta.
2008 L’Art (Contemporain) en Europe, Domaine Pommery, Reims, France. Curator: François Bousteau, chief editor of Beaux Arts Magazine
2007 Reading Cabinets, solo exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, UK,
curated by Allia Ali
2004 A Horse for Airing the Gods, four-metre tall sculpture installed on the Lange Voorhout as part of The Hague Sculpture, in The Hague, Holland.
Other participating artists: Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley,
Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Wim Delvoye, and several others
2001 Open Studio, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VA, USA.
2000 Talking about Silence, Robert McDougall Art Gallery,
Christchurch, New Zealand.
2000 Books with Nothing to say, School of Fine Arts,
University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Art Residencies
2021 Bolit Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona, Spain.
2012 Zona Imaginaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2008 Artists’ colony,
Zagorje, Slovenia
2004 One-month residency at Konstepidemin, Goteborg, Sweden.
2001 Six-week fellowship at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, USA.
2000 One year as artist-in-residence and visiting scholar at School of
Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Selected articles and books
Gatt, I., Raykov, M, & Vella, R. (2021). “You’d be in bed, you’d have … lesions and, and fever, and you’d be dying”: Challenging stigmatisation and misinformation about HIV through the arts. Invisibilidades #15, 46-53. https://www.apecv.pt/revista/invisibilidades/15/04A_46-53_2.pdf
Vella, R., Pule, M. (2021). Conducting Participatory Arts Projects: A Practical Toolkit. University of Lapland.
Vella, R., Saldanha, A., Maksimovic, M., Johnstone, J. (2020) Art Education: Conflicts and Connections. InSEA.
Vella, R., Buschkuhle, C.P., Atkinson, D. (2020) Art – Ethics – Education. Brill/Sense.
Vella, R. (2019) “Ephemeral encounters: Metaphors for an archipelagic Pedagogy”, in Synnyt/Origins 2/2019, pp. 586-596.
Vella, R. (2019) “Loss is More: Art as Phantom Limb Sensation”, in Tavin, K., Kallio-Tavin, M. and Ryynänen, M. (Eds.), Art, Excess, and Education: Historical and Discursive Contexts, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 93-109.
Vella, R. (2019) “Destination Unknown: Art and Mediterranean Pedagogies”, The International Encyclopaedia of Art and Design Education, pp 1-12.
Vella, R. (2018) “Curating as a dialogue-based strategy in art education”, International Journal of Education through Art, vol. 14(3), pp. 293-303.
Vella,R. (2017) “A Pedagogy of Dialogue: Curating and Artistic Education”, in Fritzsche, M. and Schnurr. A. (eds.) (2017), Fokussierte Komplexität: Ebenen von Kunst und Bildung, Oberhausen: ATHENA-Verlag, pp. 45-53.
Vella, R. (2016) Artist-Teachers in Context: International Dialogues, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam.
Vella, R. (2016) “Becoming the Middle Sea: Portraits of the Mediterranean in Art Education”, International Journal of Education through Art, vol. 12(1), pp. 109-122.
Vella, R. (2015) :Re-imagining Classrooms: Educational Environments in Contemporary Art“, International Journal of Education & the Arts, vol. 16(12),
Vella, R. (2015) “(Re)portraying art and learning in the Mediterranean”, Diálogos com a Arte: revista de arte, cultura e educação, vol. 4, pp. 8-16.
Vella, R. (2014) “An apprenticeship in resistance: Art, education and book burning” in My teaching, my philosophy: Kenneth Wain and the lifelong engagement with education, eds. J. Baldacchino, S. Galea & D. Mercieca, Peter Lang, New York, pp. 200-214.
Vella, R. (2014) “Avoiding ‘a kind of physics’: Arts-based educational research”, Malta Review of Educational Research, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 294-311.
Vella, R. and Baldacchino, J. (2013) Mediterranean Art and Education: Navigating local, regional and global imaginaries through the lens of the arts and learning (Sense publishers, 2013).
Vella, R. (2013) “Errant identities in contemporary art education”, in R.Mason and C-P Buschkuhle (Eds.) Images and Identity: Educating Citizenship through Visual arts, Intelect: Bristol, UK and
Vella, R. (2013) “Kunst und nationales Selbstverständnis auf Malta: Wie sich der Inselstaat mit der europäischen Identität arrangiert”, in K. Bering et al (eds.), Visual Learning: positionen im internationalen Vergleich, ATHENA Verlag: Oberhausen, 324-335., US
Mason, R, and Vella, R. (2013) “Lessons about identity formation from contemporary art”, International Journal of Education through Art 9:2, pp. 235-252
Vella, R. and Borg, C. (2012), Shooting Society: Documenting Contemporary Life in Malta (Midsea Publications)
Vella, R. (2011) “Coming to terms with a European identity in a small island State: Art and Citizenship in Malta”, Dialogos com a Arte 2, pp 154-164
Vella, R. (2012) “Art education and the art of misunderstanding”, in C-P Buschkuhle (Ed.), Kunstlerische Kunstpadagogik, Athena, Germany.
Vella, R. (2008), Cross-Currents: Critical Essays on Art and Culture in Malta (Allied Publications)
Vella, R. (2008) “Une emancipation bienvenue”, in L’art contemporain en Europe, BeauxArts Editions: Paris
Vella, R. (2008) “The Intonation of Maltese Contemporary Art”, in Arrivals> Art from the New Europe, Modern Art Oxford and Turner Contemporary.
Vella, R. (2008), “Why are there no great women artists (in the new Advanced Art syllabus)?”, Malta Review of Educational Research, Issue 1, 2008.
Vella, R. (2006), On Art and Art Education in Malta (Allied Publications)
Vella, R. (2004), “Translating the avant-garde into Esperanto”, Malta Review of Educational Research, Issue 1.
Institutional affiliation
Raphael Vella is a Professor and Art Coordinator within the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malta, where he lectures in Art Education, Contemporary Art Practice and Socially Engaged Art.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Malta Biennale.art, curated by Sofia Baldi Pighi, Elisa Carollo and Emma Mattei, Main Guard, Valletta
2024 Mater, curated by Pilar Cruz, Alexia Medici and Margerita Pule’, National Archives, Rabat, Malta
2021 Murmuration, Mahalla Festival, Istanbul
2018 A Spoonful of Sugar helps the Medicine go down, Fortress Builders, Heritage Malta, part of Mahalia Festival, Malta. Curators: Thomas Büsch, Sabine Küper-Büsch
2017 White Memory– 1989/2018: Art in Malta and Poland , Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta. Curated by Irene Biolchini and Marinella Paderni.
2017 Human Matter, Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta. Curated by Joe Philippe Abela, Roderick Camilleri and Elyse Tonna.
2015 Drifting Clouds: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books, Hadjigiorgagkis Kornesios Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus.
2015 Afterselfie, curated by Carolina Bartolotti, Palazzo Trentini, Trento, Italy, and St James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta
2013 Hermetik, Fort Tigne’, Sliema, curated by Michael Bock
2013 Personal Structures, curated by Francesca Crudo, Sarah Gold, Carol Rolla and Valeria Romagnini, Venice Biennale
2013 An Inventory of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Group show of book artists, curated by Beau Beausoleil, touring John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK, San Francisco Center for the Book and Center for Book Arts, New York, USA.
2012-2013 Stemperando, biennale of drawings organised by Verso L’Arte and the Istituto Nazionale d’Arte Contemporanea: Torino, Rome, Cosenza
2012 WiccImbWicc, Malta Arts Festival, curated by Austin Camilleri
2012 Mis-information, exhibition forming part of Bath Art Festival, curated by Diana Ali, Bath, England (May-June)
2011 I Fought the X and the X Won, National Museum of Fine Arts, Cluj, Romania and National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta
(participating artist and curator)
2010 Exhibition, Alte Saline, Hallein, Austria, curated by Destiny Deacon
2009 Eight Eighteen, Malta Contemporary Art, Marsa, curated by
Mark Mangion
2008-9 The Last Book, National Library, Buenos Aires, Argentina, curated by Luis Camnitzer.
Curation of exhibitions
2021 Tunis- Malta-Marseille, Katel Delia, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta.
2019 Hors Concours: Women and Higher Education, Valletta Campus, University of Malta, October-November
2017 Homo Melitensis: An Incomplete Inventory in 19 Chapters, Co-Curator of Malta Pavilion at Venice Biennale (with Bettina Hutschek)
2016 Divergent Thinkers 5, artistic and educational project in collaboration with Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo), Japan Media Arts Festival, and Malta Maritime Museum, Birgu.
2016 InSitu, University of Malta
2016 Building Futures, University of Malta
2016 No Man’s Land, Centro Centro Cibeles, Madrid, MADATAC festival
2015 Divergent Thinkers 4, St James cavalier Centre for Creativity, Valletta
2015 Good Walls Make Good Neighbours, St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Valletta
2014 Cause & Effect, Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker, St James Cavalier, Valletta
2014 Ser y Durar (To be and to Last), Democracy (Madrid-based artists’ group), St James Cavalier, Malta
2014 Zoographics, Katharina Swoboda, St James Cavalier, Valletta
2014 Divergent Thinkers 3, BLITZ Gallery, Valletta
2013 Din Mhix Tazza, organised by Virginia Monteforte, with participation of four Maltese artists and members of Bormla community
2013 Divergent Thinkers 2 , exhibition of emerging Maltese artists, St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Malta
2012 Divergent Thinkers, exhibition by emerging Maltese artists, curated for Aġenzija Żgħażagħ in collaboration with St James Cavalier, centre for Creativity
2012 Métamorphoses, exhibition at Maltese Embassy in Paris
2012 Tarohei Nakagawa Photography, exhibition of photographic portraits by Japanese photographer Tarohei Nakagawa, National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta
2012 Omen, paintings by Darren Tanti, St James Cavalier, Valletta
2012 Works of Art in Schools, selected works from the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta tour six Primary schools around Malta. Educational activities organised in collaboration with teachers and heads of schools
2012 School Prints Project, lithographs by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Dufy, Moore and Léger tour primary and secondary schools, St Michael Foundation.
2011 I Fought the X and the X Won, curated for National Museum of Fine Arts, Cluj, Romania and National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta. International artists from Japan, Austria, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, China, France, USA, Albania, etc
2010 Relocation: Emerging Maltese artists, Bank of Valletta Centre
2009 I in 3D, Second Life exhibition in collaboration with German digital artist Reiner Schneeberger, St James Cavalier, Valletta