01 March 2007

Here againArt Aware is at the Goethe Zentrum.This month’s Art Aware is on Sunday, March 4, at 7pm.Carla Abrantes is a Portuguese artist who has recently set up a studio in Cyprus, after dividing her career between her country of origin and the United States. Her work displays contemporary awareness, whether in its visual language, conceptual platform or usage of materials. The work process is usually quite long, studied and intricate, involving an exaggerated sense of layer in the formal results and main idea. In her last series of work the main materials have been paper, vellum, fabric and plexiglass in order not only to produce two dimensional work but also installation pieces and performance. Whether two, three or four dimensional, Carla Abrantes’s body of work focuses on peripheral issues of change, about internal and external processes of transition which usually perspire in deep conflict. The artist uses her own life episodes as base-examples for displaying the poetry and the contradictions of the rituals of change, loss trauma and un-healed memory. She has yet to exhibit in Cyprus (apart from her own studio space) but is preparing her first solo show in Nicosia to take place in October of the current year at Argo gallery. Atesh Kozal graduated from the Radio, TV and Film Studies Department, experimenting with video. Some time later he found himself showing his video projects in the exhibitions as video art. "In Art Aware I will show and talk about three video projects. The first is ‘Wish You Were Not Here’. "I produced it for the EMAA Exhibition in 2005 with the concept of ‘Island/Border’. "The whole video is shot in a small box, its size is about 10cm X10cmX10cm. I used symbols to describe the division. In the video there is war, division, the power that other countries have over Cyprus, struggle of reunification, religion, referendum and media. "It was also shown in France in an exhibition called Chypre/Cyprus and it attracted a lot of attention there."The second video is "Gece Boyle Biseymi?" It’s a video that I produced for the EMMA exhibition in 2006 with the concept of "Dalgada Bulut". It’s a phrase that you say if someone is drunk. Visually the movie is just a sunrise. There is this man watching the sunrise and talking to himself and he is totally drunk. “What he is saying is that he is not sure if the sunrise is the morning of the night that he got lost or if it’s the morning after some other nights.“The third video is "Dance". I have been DJ-ing for many years and see people dance. I wanted to make an entertaining video about social dance and also make music for it. “It was shown in Erdogan Uzunahmet’s studio in at the opening of Buyuk Khan.“I also make the visuals for our band, DEEP. It’s a kind of video performance synchronised with music in the concerts, It’s all about the visual reflection of what we are saying with the music. “So, you can also find a couple of music videos at Art Aware this month."
DemetrisConstantinouDemetris Constantinou exhibition at Gloria’s closes today. Here are some comments on the artist and his work by Dr Antonis Danos.Demetris Constantinou is a member of the generation of Cypriot artists born in the inter-war period, a group of whom aimed, from the late 1950s through the early ’70s, for the ‘synchronisation’ of Cypriot art with international developments. This process came to an abrupt end with the events of 1974. When Cypriot art returned to a state of ‘normalcy’, at around 1980, most of these artists produced work that not only did not follow international artistic expressions any more, but, on the contrary, constituted a ‘conservative’ regression, in relation to what they had created in the pre-1974 era.Constantinou is among the few exceptions. His post-1974 work, though no longer aiming at following current international developments, amounts to a smooth progression from his 1960s creations and, at the same time, a very interesting case of modernist sculpture, which successfully claims a place in the contemporary era.Constantinou’s first encounter with the international avant-garde took place with his ‘articulated’ or ‘mobile’ sculptures, from the 1960s and onwards. During the same decade, another part of his work developed in parallel to international Minimalism, both with the repetition of geometric forms and volumes, as well as with the exploration of the interaction between these forms and volumes with the surrounding space.In the post-1974 era, he continued the explorations and expressions of his earlier work, moving, at the same time, toward new ones. From the late ’70s and, especially, the early ’80s onwards, his sculpture acquires a new, monumental character, which is manifested in works where geometric volumes dominate.In this later work by Constantinou, compact, solid volume takes centre place, and now greater emphasis is placed on the solidity and robustness of the material itself. The focus is on the ‘presence’ of the material, whether in relation to form or with regard to the presence of the object in space. The latter element was given prominence among the artist’s explorations, with the geometric volumes deconstructing or developing in space. Thus the works give the impression of constituting stills from an on-going process of deconstruction and reconstruction of (geometrically defined) matter in the void.This process calls upon us to reconsider our views on, and ways of perceiving both the form and volume of the piece, and the surrounding space, as well as the interaction between them.The entire oeuvre by Constantinou constitutes a very important contribution to the development of the art of sculpture.Constantinou’s current exhibition at Gloria’s continues until tonight Friday, March 2, which is also the 30th anniversary of the first opening of Gloria Gallery. See you there. Snaps of the past on the wall. From Tuesday, March 6, there will be an exhibition of work by Erato Hadjisavva to be opened by the Bishop of Kykko at Gloria Gallery.
Andreas at AlphaANDREAS Karayan is at Alpha Gallery. First presentation in Cyprus of the artist’s work that represented Cyprus at the 49th Venice Biennale. Continuing until March 3.Art historian Niki Loizidou writes:"These works should not be viewed as portraits of young handsome men, which are characterised by intense and remote melancholy. These faces here are something like "maps of the world", psychographies, and simultaneously are unknown, enchanting and mysterious, earthly and at the same time unearthly landscape."Here, discreet sensuality co-exists freely with the deeply experienced feeling of the end and with melancholy. It is a tribute to life through death, about a condensing of memory from images, rites of worship and experiences, very deep and very distant, which converse with death without fear, but also without expectation. "Here, I meet a brave, dignified and deeply poetic acceptance of death that brings me closer to ur Byzantine icons and even to those exquisite classical Greek funeral steles."These works make me think that the feeling of melancholy comes at precisely the moment of great joy, of the almost absolute culmination of joy."
Vassilis Karakatzanis at ArgoTHIS outstandingly brilliant exhibition is titled "Urban Materials and the Unknown Land" and continues until March 10. Entirely original.Vassilis is a very welcome visitor, indeed, always turning up from Greece with new ideas that relate and impress. Exceptional colour with sensitive application.It is also a rare occasion. There is something entirely new in certain works.The artist appears to be moving into a phase of painting which I have never experienced before. You could call it post Vassarely or post-Bridget Riley, or, op art goes representational.Go to Argo for a visual awakening.
Marlen in Transition MARLEN Karletidou has an art exhibition and improvisation dance and music event at Pantheon Gallery.The new work, under the title Transition, is that of a mature painter whose thoughts and problems concerning opportune matters create the image direct, with fantasy and unexpected surrealistic elements. People, butterflies, birds, animals and psychic creatures mix and mingle, play and dream in a continuous flow of movement.The idea of the artwork came out at the moment of the opening between the two parts in Nicosia, at the Ledra Palace barricade. At that point, which the painter named the Little UN Blue and White House, many kinds of feelings, emotions and meetings came up in a concentrated moment giving singularity in the place, space and time. The Transition is completed in many different ways.Following the opening at 9pm there was an original artistic event at which the figurative arts met with music and dance. The musician Agni Sakka and the choreographer-dancer Evi Dimitriou infiltrate in the new figurative work of Marlen Karletidou, they become spectators and witnesses of new reality and self improvisation with ancient sounds and movement that comes straight from the soul.Agni Sakka used musical implements, such as the didgeridoo, India crust and Tibetan bowls in rhythms that spring from depths of the ground and expres the various races of the planet. At the same time, Evi Dimitriou self improvised dancing within the forms of modern and creative dance.This was a wonderful evening. The paintings are of an exceptionally high standard, full of empathy, brilliant colour and a deep, deep message.Marlen’s Pantheon show continues until March 11.She was born in Nicosia in 1961. She studied painting at the Athens University, School of Fine Arts between 1979 and 1985. Marlen lives and works in Cyprus and has exhibited her work in solo shows in Cyprus and participated in group exhibitions both in Cyprus and abroad (Greece, France, Switzerland, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, China, U.S.A.)The artist was awarded a prize in drawing at the 18th Biennale of Alexandria, Egypt.More next week with some visuals.
All Women4 You THE "Pegasus Art Foundation" to mark Woman’s Day, still have an exhibition continuing at Art Studio, 55 Heroes Square, until Saturday, March 10.Their positive blurb mentions that the newer generation of women artists was shaped in the decades of 1980-2000 and they constitute the expression of Newer Art; bold enough to exceed the cultural isolation and hemming that is imposed by our small space, and articulate a word in the new European multi-cultural environment in dialogue with all nationalities.Pegasus AF wishes particularly to promote the creations of women artists and has organized the project "All Women 4 You" and will establish it as an annual event.-
In memory of Michael Chr. Kashialos (1885 -1974)This exhibition, at Opus 69, of naive painting will be opened by the President of the Pierides Foundation, Demetris Z. Pierides at 7.30 on Monday.Kyriacos Michael Kashialos was born in 1931 in Ashia and is the son of the naOve painter Michael Chr Kashialos. After finishing primary school in Assia, he tried his hand at various occupations. He took up art after 1967, having observed his father’s career and accompanying him to various exhibitions. His work depicts traditional customs as well as scenes from his village rural life. His exhibition continues until March 17.

Last daysPAMBOS Mirianthous’exhibition of paintings at Kyklos Art gallery, Paphos continues until March 2.Katie Sabry and Kelly Norman continue at Dino’s Art CafE, Limassol Old Town with "Coast Town" until March 4.Don’t miss the angels at Gallery k. Apocalypse, Panos Stephanides: A superb exhibition of paintings is on at Apocalypse by Panos Stephanides. They have an almost Pollocian love of painterly values. They flow. They get caught and composed. They delicately swing between humour and horror. Is this the mood of the times? All on the verge of change. In safe aesthetic hands.
Angels at Gallery kCONTINUING until March 17, the gallery is packed with art under the theme ANGELS. It has truly taken wing; wonderful, enlightening with an exceptional variety.