Zack Ritchie


Zack Ritchie is a young Maltese graphic illustrator.

His work is underpinned by a strong foundation in fine art, but with advertising serving as his inspiration.

Zack designs illustrations and characters which balance dynamic aesthetics with concept and narrative.

He is inspired by Maltese imagery, reinterpreting cultural narratives with flair, light social commentary, a thoughtful amalgamation of clean, crisp style and a message with everyday appeal.

Zack Ritchie takes iconic Maltese elements as a starting point for much of his art. A good example is the series of Disney-esque characters he created and cladded with cheeky charm in vibrant primary colours, printed onto paper and cut onto perspex. These bright and playful illustrations are bursting with irony.

Other pieces in Zack’s collection are clearly influenced by advertising posters. Whereas most of his work brims over with energy, in these works you also find a hip and laid-back twist combined with his usual dynamism as he teams the simple lazy charm of 1930s advertising with a neat modern style.

Like a promising young wine, Ritchie only needs time and the right conditions to develop. Now he just got hold of a real barrel for him to fill in.


“The Vessel of Joy”

by Zack Ritchie

The Mediterranean way is one of easy living. It’s an extraordinary fount of cultural wealth. Daily life in Malta’s, too, is coloured by lightness, scents and flavours shared at the table, and lazy hands of time.

The barrel’s story follows Malta’s sluggish sundial, the daily cycle of time from a sunny morning to a festive Maltese night, and wine is the daily staple that unwinds, connects and let us celebrate each day over and over again.

‘The Vessel of Joy’ embodies Malta’s simple but cheerful lifestyle.

Ritchie’s approach strips all bare to bring it back in ‘pure’ colours against a ‘virgin’ white background, enlivened by 3D-cut shapes, which are stuck to the barrel and create an embossing effect found on wine labels. In doing so, the artist enriches the narrative with small memento’s of Maltese traditions and the archipelago’s long, chequered history.

Zack Ritchie’s bettija’rt is true to his clean, crisp and modern style, which balances dynamic aesthetics with concept and narrative. And, somehow, wittingly or otherwise, he takes ‘the idea of  Mediterranean Malta’ in a playful and artistic way from a physical reality to a cultural construct that evolves around good living.

The ten artist finalists for this year’s 2019 Bettija’rt | wine.art.living are Joseph Barbara, Claire Attard Vella, David Xuereb, Caroline Said Lawrence, Carmel Bonello, Zack Ritchie, Francis Galea, Priscilla Gatt, Donald Camilleri and Sara Pace.

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