Denis Calleja - an 'Outsider Artist'

By Louis Lagana

Denis Calleja is an 'outsider' artist. One of the great things about Denis's work is that he draws because he loves drawing, not because he can make money out of it. Denis does not sell all of the work he creates. When one looks at Denis's work, one could tell that the artist is after expressing his spontaneous feelings without any preconceived ideas. He puts a great deal of effort into every single drawing whether big or small. Sometimes, he takes several weeks of work to finish a drawing. While Denis is working on a drawing he feels totally relaxed. He forgets all things around him and he gets lost in a world of his own.

Creativity for him is a therapy. Denis uses different mediums including pastels, felt pens and mostly coloured glitter which gives great effect to his compositions. The artist builds his forms on paper by continuous layers of contours filled with rich sharp shades and subtle hues. At times these forms tend to characterize images of objects, animals, primordial signs and mysterious icons suspended in space. The background of his drawings is always different. His drawings are raw and pure.

Denis's fantasy is surely coming from his unconscious. His spontaneous work has powerful emotional content expressed in symbolical language. It is a 'self-discovery process' with a unique approach to find his true identity. His endless quest is to continue creating, whether drawing, music or poetry

 

What is outsider art ?

Outsider art is a type of primitive art style that is now getting widespread recognition.

The definition usually implies all creative works such as paintings, drawings, sculptures, assemblages, and even simple garden designs and other outdoor constructions done by people who have had little or no formal training in art and who produce (or at least began producing) art without regard to the mainstream art world's recognition, marketplace or definitions. These are people who make art for themselves or their existing community, often without recognizing themselves as artists. Of course there are debates today about this new idea of labelling a type of art which intends to be naive or have idiosyncratic qualities. The main idea is that 'outsider art' remains free from all formal conventions.

 

(Louis Lagana' is an assistant lecturer at the Junior College University of Malta. He is a practising artist and broadcaster. Currently he is an M.Phil./Ph.D. candidate in Fine Art with the University of Loughborough)