After Caravaggio | Where Worlds Overlap

by Olaug Vethal

• Vinyl Acrylics on canvas
• 143cm by 166cm stretched
• 147cm by 170cm framed
• 2004

In After Caravaggio | Where Worlds Overlap, Olaug Vethal draws upon Caravaggio’s Narcissus and Martha and Mary Magdalene, transforming their imagery of reflection and spiritual awakening into a fluid metaphysical space.

Figures multiply, overlap and dissolve into one another, while the dark mirror-like form becomes a threshold rather than simply a reflection. The distinction between body and image, self and other, material and immaterial begins to collapse. Vethal moves beyond Caravaggio’s physical world into one in which several realities appear to coexist.

Past and present, body and spirit, the seen and the unseen occupy the same pictorial space. Where Worlds Overlap becomes a meditation on those moments when the boundaries separating one state of being from another seem briefly to disappear.

This work is currently hung at Spazju A, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta until 25th October 2026 as part of the exhibition ‘Beyond The Visible | The Metaphysical Worlds of Olaug Vethal, curated by Christine Xuereb and in collaboration with Christine X Art Gallery