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| Biography |
| Victor Sammut (b. 1943) has been involved in ceramic sculpture for the past 26 years. This experience has taken him a long way in his endeavors after having taught in state schools for 39 years. This all started by chance when he met a collegue Neville Ferry whom he had known at St. Michael�s College of Education and who in turn invited Victor to start pottery classes at Targa Gap School for Craftsmen way back in 1979. There he met the doyen of ceramics Gabriel Caruana (whom I salute and wish a healthy long life) and spent 13 years learning the techniques. These years were happy ones as the atmosphere was friendly and informal. From then on Victor started to take part in various collective exhibitions which continue to this day having recently held his 6th personal to celebrate his 25th Anniversary exhibition in Mdina local council in September 2004 which occupied the whole Corte Capitanale with its 103 works of art. His baptism of fire arrived way back in1979 with the collective exhibition that the Christian Brothers of De La Salle held in Cottonera as part of their golden jubilee and in May 2004 he repeated for their 100 anniversary at The Society of Arts premises in Valletta. After that other opportunities to exhibit came along. In May 1989 the �Tour de Force � exhibition was held I the Museum of Fine Arts in conjunction with 5 other fellow artists. This gave Victor the adrenaline to continue working while pursuing his teaching profession where he taught his favorite subject: French and culture. This was the order of the day and numerous collective exhibitions, being sacred biennales at the Mdina Cathedral museum or of philanthropic nature keep cropping up. Recently through the initiative of The Society of Arts he participated in Adenau, Hamburg and Bremen, Germany. In August 2003 he participated in the Malta Biennale in Moscow, Russia with Dame Francoise Tempra and Rev.Fr. Marius Zerafa where Victor continued travelling on to St. Petersburg to further his experiences and to visit museums . The story did not stop there as Victor was commissioned to install �The Monumento del Giubileo 2000�in a private residence in Formia, Italy. Together with other fellow artists he has had another opportunity to exhibit in the 2004 Macerata twinning permanent exhibition entitled �Un Volto per San Guiliano �and at The Tempra Malta Biennale in the Gattoprado palace of Palma di Montechiaro, Provincia di Agrigento, Sicily. Presently Victor is having his 7th Personal exhibition which will be held in the recently restored typical 18thcent.village chapel of St. Philip and St. James popularly known as �Tal- Prepostu � in San Gwann. This will feature in the annual local council celebrations of � Jum San Gwann 2005� in June and will also be the 19th. Venue for The Malta International Biennale 2005 under the presidency of Dame Francoise Tempra (from 17- 30June 2005) Recently Victor was awarded an �Honourable Mention� in The Silver Palette Competition at The Society of Arts (photo no 8) and The 2004 Grolla d�Oro Award for ceramics at Villa Braida Venice, Italy. For the future the artist still �sticks to his guns� and has no intention of giving up his passion for sculpture and his immediate ambition is to continue selling his biography entitled � Victor Sammut- 25 Years of ceramic sculpture (1979- 2004 )� as all proceeds will be forwarded to the missions where two of his cousins, both bearing the same name of Carmen Sammut are working in Algeria and Romania and to Brazil where Victor�s younger brother Fr. Anton Sammut died tragically in 1977,aged 27 years. Finally Victor�s wish is to exhibit abroad and have a personal exhibition now that he is enjoying his retirement. . July2005 |