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Lina Zhou Yu x Joshua Yu

Valletta Design Cluster

Lina Zhou Yu and Joshua Yu are designers who recently relocated from China to Malta. Before moving, they founded and ran their own studio, focusing on cultural heritage preservation and adaptive reuse across planning and architectural scales. Their practice explores connections between history and the present, extending this approach into furniture design where structure and use become ways of reinterpreting cultural values within a contemporary context. Their participation in designMT represents an early creative engagement with their new environment in Malta.

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Inese Refalo, Zeltīte Upeniece & Francesca Puglisi

Valletta Design Cluster

An international collective of artists, each contributing through a distinct medium and perspective, they form a cohesive dialogue around nature, sustainability and craftsmanship.
Inese Refalo is a Latvia-born, Malta-based artist and interior designer working across acrylic, linocut and mixed media, combining abstraction and realism with storytelling and upcycled materials.
Zeltīte Upeniece is a Latvia-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans art, tailoring and astrology, exploring nature, symbolism and human experience.
Francesca Puglisi is a Palermo-based designer and textile artist exploring nature, sustainability and textile design through eco-printing, using natural dyes and low-impact processes.

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Katrin Formosa

Valletta Design Cluster

Katrin Formosa began exploring ceramics and mosaic while living in New York in 1983. After returning to Gozo, she established Gozo Pottery Barn at the Ta’ Dbieġi Artisan Village in 1989, where she continues to work today. Her practice combines locally inspired and folkloric designs with artistic, abstract and one-off pieces, reflecting an innovative approach to traditional ceramic craftsmanship. Alongside her studio practice, Katrin teaches pottery and mosaic through Lifelong Learning in Gozo and organises ceramics and mosaic sessions at her studio, sharing her skills with both local and visiting participants.

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Luke Bugeja Gauci

Valletta Design Cluster

Luke Bugeja Gauci is an artist whose work examines the human dynamics of living and the social structures that shape how individuals relate to and position themselves within the world. His practice creates environments intended to provoke reflection and emotional response, exploring responsibility, consequence and the effects individual decisions can have across wider systems. Rather than providing answers, Luke allows tension, beauty and discomfort to coexist, encouraging awareness of the often-invisible mechanisms of everyday life and the ways individuals both shape and are shaped by the systems they inhabit.