SAME TIDES/DIFFERENT CURRENTS.
For I Exist Too 2025 @ Urban Valley Resort & Spa, Kappara, Malta, 07.05.2025 - 08.05.2025
BOBB ATTARD. SERGIO BONILLA PINZÓN. MARÍA HERRERA (GABYSH) . THOMAS VAN GAALEN. MATTHEW SCHEMBRI.
EXHIBITIONS.
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"WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO CARRY A PART OF YOURSELF QUIETLY, EVERY DAY, JUST TO FEEL SAFE OR ACCEPTED AT WORK?
Same Tides, Different Currents gives voice to LGBTIQ+ people working in
environments where being different often means being invisible - in
shipyards, on construction sites, in military uniforms, or behind the mirrored
glass of observation rooms. These are spaces that often expect silence,
sameness, and toughness - where queerness isn’t always rejected outright,
but is kept just out of view.
The artists in this exhibition explore how queerness moves through these
spaces; not always openly, but still powerfully.
Through illustration, drawing,
and digital work, they tell stories of quiet resistance, longing, strength, and
adaptation.
We see tension between bodies, not just from labor but from the
unspoken desire of being...
We see uniforms that both protect and erase.
We see moments of retreat and reflection; behind closed doors, beneath the surface, or through imagined connections.
Some of the works are based on real conversations with queer workers,
revealing how hiding one’s identity becomes a habit, a barrier, a survival
tactic.
Others are more symbolic - a cable pulled tight, a porthole shaped like
a dream, a high-five that never quite touches.
The artworks speak of the effort
it takes to fit in, the fear of being found out, and the small acts of expression
that push back.
Same Tides, Different Currents is about that in-between space - between
belonging and isolation, visibility and secrecy, pride and protection. It’s about
those who exist in tough places, not because they’re accepted, but because
they choose to show up anyway.
It’s about honouring the resilience and creativity that thrive even in the shadows
This exhibition reminds us that even under pressure, identity flows. It doesn’t
disappear, it moves differently"
bobb attard - curator
ARTISTS
SERGIO
BONILLA PINZÓN
MARÍA GABRIELA
HERRERA GONZÁLEZ
THOMAS VAN GAALEN
MATTHEW SCHEMBRI
Sergio Bonilla Pinzón (b. 1991, Bogotá) is a Colombian visual artist based in Paris. Working primarily in drawing and painting, his practice explores queer embodiment, poetic resistance, and subversive beauty within normative systems.
A graduate of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the Paris 8 University’s contemporary art program, Bonilla has exhibited across Europe and Latin America. His work reimagines masculinities through sensuality, irony, and visual tension, often blending tenderness and rebellion in the same gesture
María Herrera (Gabysh) is from Veraguas, Panama and Architect graduated from the University of Panama, but with a passion for the arts, the research and teaching. As an artist, watercolor techniues are the one she exercises the most, although she also develops digital works and collages, focused on the mixture of different cultures, customs and traditions.
This has led her to participate in different collective art exhibitions and competitions, the most recent being: Second Place in the Roberto Lewis Contest, Digital Art category with the Work: The Apparition. (2022), Collective Poster Exhibition of 120 Years of Relationship between Panama and Mexico, (2024), she has also been a curator in the first exhibition I Exist Too, Invisibles (2023).
Thomas van Gaalen is an illustrator and a PhD candidate in history at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His research focuses on practices of solidarity in the interwar Caribbean. As an illustrator and designer, Thomas has produced, among other things, book covers, cover artwork for musical releases, and promotional materials for non-profit-causes and social movements. Currently, he is the art director and chief illustrator of the Dutch edition of Jacobin Magazine.
Website: https://thomasvangaalen.format.com/
Matthew Schembri (b. 1993) is a multimedia artist, writer and poet based in Malta. He earned a
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Digital Arts in 2017. Schembri won Divergent Thinkers 04 (2015), and Shifting Contexts (2019), and was named The Young Artist of the Year in 2017 by Arts
Council Malta. In addition to Malta, he exhibited his works and was awarded art and literary
residencies in the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Croatia and Finland.
Schembri’s debut novel, Stessi (2018), won The Literary Contest of Novels for Youth 2016. With
his first poetry collection, Ħassartek (2021), he received the Best Emerging Author award from the National Book Council Malta in 2022. His work was
translated into English, French, and Croatian