Henry Falzon started his artistic journey in the early 90s with Black & White photography while in his late teens. Shooting film was Henry’s way of exploring and projecting the way he perceives life and the things around him. His preoccupation has been centered around capturing moments and presenting them in a way to make some form of statement or impression. Often, angles of familiar views are presented in unusual ways, a recurring challenge for Henry. 

Being entirely self-thought and starting from rather unorthodox paths to art, gives Henry a generous degree of mental freedom and uninhibited approaches. His art has no rules or conventions, only enthusiasm to create art as a vehicle to get his story across. Henry’s use of colour and composition is intense and is taken to almost religious obsession. The foundations of photography remain to this day the cornerstone of Henry’s work, but only as a departure point. Probably this is due to Henry’s insatisfaction that photography is often too close to life and Henry needs to push his voice beyond the very real, more into a sprinkle of dream-like quality. After consulting his reference images and sketches, Henry’s hand lays down stroke after stroke of charcoal and pastel ‘chalks’ to achieve his signature pieces.

The curiosity towards life is the engine that drives Henry. Every passing year throws new experiences in life and makes life, in Henry’s view, impossible to be left unexplored and unmanifested. This necessity fuels more exploration and new ways of expression, new artwork with new media. Charcoal is perhaps the latest addition to Henry’s artistic output as are his hand-pulled original printmaking editions. 

For collectors, Henry represents perhaps a sprinkle of excitement over what could be a drab and mundane life. A different take on the known and expected. Of course Henry did not just descend on the local art scene, it took decades of background work, and a number of past exhibitions to transport Henry’s voice across to the curious and enthusiastic. 

Life being so precious and yet volatile, needs to be consumed with gusto. Time is the most precious of commodities. This work is an attempt to bottle tiny samples of it to be consumed bit by bit as we go past these pieces hanging on our walls.

​

Henry Falzon is based in Malta

​