Shanice Farrugia’s debut solo exhibition, (UN)EXPRESSED, brings together a series of self-portraits developed over the past two years, exploring emotional restraint, suppressed feeling and the quiet weight of experiences that cannot always be spoken. Rather than simply recording likeness, Farrugia uses the face as a site through which internal states become visible.
Her portraits explore what lies beneath the composed exterior we learn, or are expected, to present to the world. Tired eyes, flushed skin, tension and stillness become subtle carriers of emotion, while faces are cropped, fragmented, submerged or partially concealed. In this tension between revelation and withholding, Farrugia considers the difficulty of expressing what we feel while simultaneously protecting what remains private.
The work is informed by her experience of living alongside her father’s long-term illness and by the concept of anticipatory grief: the fear and sadness of potentially losing someone while they are still here. This is given physical presence through the recurring figure of the raven. First appearing in The Sound of Pre-Grief, the raven hovers close to Farrugia’s face, confronting the possibility of loss while becoming a witness to the uneasy space between hope and fear, presence and absence.
Yet these works extend beyond autobiography. Farrugia’s self-portraits invite viewers to recognise their own experiences of emotional restraint, uncertainty and vulnerability. Through a slow and intimate process of drawing and painting, (UN)EXPRESSED becomes an exploration of what happens when feelings are held rather than spoken, and of what the face can reveal when words cannot.
Shanice Farrugia
Shanice Farrugia (b. 2000) is a Malta-based multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting, and installation. Rooted in self-portraiture and intimate depictions of those closest to her, her practice explores memory, perception, and identity. She holds a B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (First Class) from MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts.
Farrugia has exhibited across Malta and internationally, including in London, Berlin, and Gibraltar. Her drawing Landline Lullaby received The Gallery Choice and People’s Choice Awards at the 2025 Summer Exhibition at The Gallery at Green & Stone, Chelsea, London. She was a finalist for Visual Artist of the Year at the FreeHour Awards 2026, selected for ARTIT’s Portrait Artists of the Year 2025, and a finalist for Best Artist-Illustrator at the Lovin Malta Awards 2024.
Her debut solo exhibition, (UN)EXPRESSED, brings together a series of self-portraits exploring emotional restraint, quiet endurance, and anticipatory grief – experiences often carried in silence.
