John Busuttil Leaver was born in 1964 and is a graphic designer and a visual artist whose first one-man show was held in 1988. Since then, he has put up six more solo shows including one at the National Museum of Fine Arts. He has participated in over 50 collective exhibitions. His work includes drawing, oil painting, modelling and mixed media. He is mentioned in De Piro_ s _ Artists who painted Malta_ (both editions), and by art critics, E. Fiorentino and Dominic Cutajar.
He won a world wide third prize in the IFSTS International Poster Award, Spain 1985, and first prize for the 1995 Teacher's Whiskey Art Awards as well as the logo design competition of _ Dancepower_ (Dance Council of Malta) in 2000. His work has featured on TV and Radio programmes including: _ Kuluri_ , on Radju tal-Mediterranean (1997, 1999); _ Min hu l_ Artist Malti?_ Super 1 (1999); _ Meander_ on PBS (1997, 1999, 2002); and a Canadian TV Cultural Programme _ TV FRAMES_ during a feature on Malta, (1999).
His work reflects a romantic nature, conflicting with the contradictions of living in the 21st century. The experience of nature, the classic idea of woman and colour are recurring themes but these are influenced by other themes such as overcrowding, excessive building, and loss of religious/community values. He also juggles with the dualism of history and realism on one hand and contemporary expressionism on the other. Can art afford to be totally abstract and _ spiritual_ at a time of total immersion in realism seen daily on TV and electronic media? Does it risk being irrelevant and repetitive and reduced to a sort of craftsman patternmaking? Leaver's effort search for a middle way.