Urban Wildlife – A collective exhibition

Urban Wildlife – A collective exhibition

A fundraising exhibition in aid of Maltese flora, fauna, and our shared home.

26th November- 19th December 2026

Urban Wildlife is an illustrated risograph exhibition, designed to raise awareness about 40 endangered and extirpated Maltese flora and fauna, as well as highlight local conservation efforts.

To understand our native species is to understand what we risk losing and the real and concrete here and now of climate change. Climate change isn’t just about emissions; it’s also about culture.

It’s very normal in Maltese culture to grow up seeing animals as commodities, and give no further thought to how our actions and policies are affecting nature on a local level. Through this exhibition, we want to raise awareness and foster a connection with our own local nature, to try and empower each other with what we can do, what is in our power.

Most Maltese don’t even know what we stand to lose. We’re so divorced from nature, we have no idea of our own indigenous subspecies.

How can we commit ourselves to caring for or safeguarding nature without even knowing about it? Taking action doesn’t solely mean sacrifice.

There is joy in coming together to speak out for the voiceless, for the very bedrock of our island. It is not only humans who live in Malta.

Opening Night: 26th November (time tbc)

Programme:

• Bird Watching and Monotype printing with iella at Salini Reserve on the 28th November 9am-12.00pm (10-15 people). (Age group: 12-18 years old.)
• Artist Tour with Michelle Gruppetta, Ruth Ancilleri, Steffi Venturi, Kriss Zammit Endrich, Amy Muscat 5th December, 10.30am.
• Artist Tour with Michelle Gruppetta, Ruth Ancilleri, Fleur Sciortino, Kriss Zammit Endrich, Luca Pisani 12th December, 10.30am
• Panel Discussion between NGOs and Luca Pisani on art and activism on the 19th December (Details and time TBA). Moderated by Ruth Ancilleri.

These 40 works are designed by 10 local artists and printed by Purċinella Press.

Amy Muscat – Artist Biography 

Amy Muscat is a self-taught artist whose practice centres on watercolour and figurative painting, with a particular focus on portraiture and the female form. Her work draws inspiration from nature and folkloric imagery, exploring themes of identity, storytelling, and the relationship between figure and landscape. Alongside her artistic practice, she works professionally as a senior mental health nurse, and her long-standing engagement with psychiatry has subtly informed her interest in human expression, emotion, and inner narratives.

@amymuscatart

Antonia Gatt – Artist Biography

Antonia Gatt is a Malta-based designer, illustrator, and visual storyteller who enjoys moving between the analogue and digital worlds. Her work is driven by curiosity, often exploring place, memory, and the small details that make everyday life feel meaningful. Whether she’s sketching, experimenting with print, taking photographs, or building visual identities, she approaches each project with the same belief: that good design should make people stop, look, and feel something. When she’s not in the studio, you’ll probably find her wandering with a camera in hand, collecting moments that later find their way into her work.

www.antoniagatt.com/

Fleur Franklin – Artist Biography

Fleur Franklin (she/her) is an award-winning illustrator and designer who works in the Tabletop RPG industry and has previously worked in fields ranging from book and board game publishing, video game development, storyboarding for film, animation, and design agency work. Her work has been published in many international publications, and has worked with clients like Penguin Random House, Scholastic and Chaosium.

https://www.wanderers-tome.com/

https://fleursciortino.com/

iella – Story Editor Biography

iella (the alias of Daniela Attard), is an east London based Maltese visual artist, multidisciplinary creative and qualified art teacher.

Her work is inspired by 90s animation, video games and nature, and explores themes like fantasy, climate change, existentialism, and personal experiences.

Iella maintains an ongoing printmaking and painting practice under Bow Arts at their Leyton studios.

@ielladoodle

KLONN – Artist Biography

KLONN is the alias/drag persona of multimedia artist Gabriel Chetcuti (he/they). Born and based in Malta, and with a focus on wearable art, their work balances the kitsch and the mythological.

Portfolio:
instagram.com/itsklonn

Kriss Zammit Endrich – Artist Biography

Kristina Zammit Endrich is a multi-disciplinary creative, producing illustrations, paper goods, textiles and jewellery under the banner of Pocket Sandwich Studio. Two years into a seven-year stint working in music and design in the frozen prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada, Kristina started creating digital doodles as a form of visual diary. These illustrations became a line of tongue-in-cheek greeting cards and prints. Now Kristina’s work can be found on billboards and websites, in magazines and social feeds, on album covers and band tees, and where it all started – on stationery store shelves.

www.pocketsandwichstudio.com/

Michelle Gruppetta – Artist Biography

Michelle Gruppetta is a multi-disciplinary artist with a focus on animation and risograph printing. She graduated from The Animation Workshop in January 2021 with a BA in Character animation and has been working in the animation industry ever since. Michelle primarily works as a 3D Layout and Previz artist on 3D animated TV shows aimed at children, most notably LEGO City: No Limits. Michelle also directed “Misophonia,” a risograph animated project designed to unsettle an audience through combined sounds and visuals. “Misophonia” was exhibited at Spazju Kreattiv in 2025 and is currently on the international film festival circuit. Michelle is the project co-ordinator of Urban Wildlife and one of the illustrators in this exhibition.

michellegruppetta.carrd.co

Luca Pisani – Artist Biography

Luca Pisani is a marine biologist by day turned printmaker by night. He specialises in handprinted linocut artworks, which draw heavy inspiration from his passions and interests, and are often themed around local wildlife, Maltese culture and history, and the deep blue sea.

@pisani_prints

Ruth Ancilleri – Artist Biography

Ruth Ancilleri is a visual artist, illustrator and fine arts lecturer and is based on the island of Malta. For the past few years, she has been working on a body of work inspired by local indigenous plants and other tropical species. Her research seeks to find out more about the otherwise forgotten uses of Maltese plants, as well as investigates their use throughout history as remedies and other ritual purposes.

www.ruthancilleri.com

Steffi Venturi – Artist Biography

Steffi Venturi is a Maltese freelance illustrator based in Malta, specialising in digital and traditional art. Her visual style is minimal and playful, incorporating elements of visual storytelling. Some of her works are heavily influenced by the culture & character of the Mediterranean island she grew up on. Throughout the years since going freelance, her illustrations have been featured in local galleries, festivals, and in Maltese children’s books.

@venturisteffi

26 November to 19 December 2026

Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts,
Palazzo de La Salle,
219, Republic Street,
Valletta

Free