Pierre Portelli (1961) is a Malta-based artist working mainly in installation, sculpture, video and mixed media art. He explores and makes use of various media including coir, chewing gum, concrete, live vegetation, steel, mirrors, sound, wood, new technologies and repurposed objects amongst others. His work investigates processes of change, interaction and the temporary meeting of social worlds through sculpture, site-specific work, language and sometimes playful tongue-in-cheek undertones. He studied at the Swindon School of Art and Design in the UK and is a founding member of START, a Maltese contemporary art group, and a collaborator of The Little Constellations, a network for contemporary art. In 2003 he collaborated with Love Difference and Michelangelo Pistoletto at the 50th Venice Biennale. He is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta and is currently the Council President of the Malta School of Art.

Pierre Portelli has exhibited in national and international institutions such as the Ostrale Biennale, Dresden; the Bozar and the European Commission, Brussels, Belgium; The Malta Maritime Museum and The National Museum of Fine Arts in Malta; The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik; Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy; the Central Connecticut State University, USA; the Biennale du Design St Etienne, France; the Palais Kherridine, Tunis; Palais Liechtenstein, Feldkirch, Austria; Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genoa; the Kunstraum Engländerbau, Lichtenstein; The Athens Metro, Athens; the Ancient Monastery of St. Clare, San Marino; the Montagu Bastion, Space for Contemporary Art, Gibraltar; the Magazzini del Sale, Cervia, Italy; the Chiesa Santa Chiara, San Marino; the Agricola de Cologne, Germany; the Pierides Museum of Contemporary Art, Nicosia; The Village of Solutions’-MEDCOP21 in Marseille, France; the Bautzner Strasse Memorial Staasi Prison, Dresden, Germany; Barely Fair, Julius Caesar Gallery, Chicago, USA. His work is found in the National Collection of Malta, MUŻA National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta; The National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik; The Little Constellations Archives in San Marino; The U.S. Art In Embassies Collection of the State Department, and in various private collections both locally and abroad.

Pierre Portelli has originated cross-disciplinary research based projects with music composers and performers, choreographers, actors, authors and is a frequent collaborator in theatre productions. He is the co-curator and co-researcher of the ongoing REL•INK Indelible Narratives project initiated in 2016, that researches and explores the tattoo history and narratives of Malta and the links with other Mediterranean port cities.

Photo credit: Pierre Portelli