08 March 2007

Alpha GalleryNicholas Panayi’s exhibition, From the Darkness to the Light, opened on Tuesday at Alpha Gallery and continues until the 17th of the month.On Tuesday March 13, of the month at 7.30 p.m. the artist will give a lecture on the subject "Expressionist Influences".Artist and critic Jane Walker writes on Nicholas’s art:Nicholas Panayi is an artist of the human figure, encompassing all its physicality, humanity and spirituality. The human being, no less. It is a huge subject, which some might call the greatest of challenges. Who art we? Who am I? Why….?A while ago I was sitting with him in Au Bon Plaisir talking about living the working life of an artist. We agreed about some essential preconditions for making art which we called the "five Hs": honesty, hunger, humanity and – a slightly cheating one but you can’t leave it out – hard work. Not only does Panayi aspire to all these conditions but he meets them with continual reassessment and redefinition. Honesty means never making a mark that could have arisen out of automatic gesture rather than intention. Humility is the only approach that suppresses the ego and connects the artist to the universal. Hunger is not of the body but that appetite of the spirit for artistic expression which must be satisfied. Humanity is the connection with our fellow man which moves us through compassion to expression. Finally, hard work, which is a commitment not just of one’s time but every atom of energy one can summon.That energy is there in the powerful sense of future and onward momentum in Panayi’s work. His ideas develop so fast that it seems he is always on the threshold of new discovery. In recent years, we have seen his work move through many modulations encompassing the use of light in various ways, live music and video projection – all ventures into media that add depth to pre-existing visions and not at all a kind of experimentation for its own sake or a slavish following of artistic fashion. Although there is a steady evolution, looking back over his whole output, it becomes clear that the work always has a consistency, belonging within tradition but with a handwriting so strong and sui generis that one could virtually never mistake one of his paintings for that of another artist. “Of a recent exhibition he said: "Try and see it as a whole and see what it does to you. That’s what I advise." “I could second that advice. I remember at the opening of the Generations exhibition in 2004, standing in a space filled with work, feeling that combined energy and passion of all those rhythmically linear figures and almost hearing the paintings crying out the same message to the world: hope – another word beginning with H that is rather more specific to Panayi. The viewer sees tragedy, then transgression, and is moved to hope.Nicholas Panayi has lived through a time when his home on the island of Cyprus was never without struggle and human conflict or the day to day reality of the ‘Cyprus Problem.’ His art speaks to this struggle and the tragic condition of the ‘hurt generations’ affected by the war. He makes a response while only occasionally treating the subject in any literal sense. Central to his work is the desire for peace and reconciliation in the world in general as well as Cyprus in particular. The purpose of his work is not to record and rebuke but to arouse emotion and sensitise the viewer …."Even though I use these so called negative events that are happening," Panayi says, "I think the message eventually is positive."

The SealsRODOULA Lioliou Anastasiou presents The Seals at Studio Gallery. This is at 65, Pericleous, within the walls of Old Nicosia.It will be opened on Saturday, March 10 (tomorrow) at 7.30pm by Nicholas Panayi, and will continue until March 16.Through the use of mixed media, Rodoula Lioliou Anastasiou will present her paintings. Her search for "The Seal" takes both a concrete and symbolic form, revealing all aspects of its understanding and existence. The introversive struggle between the rare virtues and the vices, in desperate hope that the first will succeed, has a direct and indirect effect in human relationships from generation to generation. This individual, self-gnostic attempt for a catharsis and understanding of self-existence is the balance between the rational and spiritual, the overpowering of "good over evil"."
Mavrommatisat TechnisERACLIS Mavrommatis has photographs at Technis Dromena Gallery.Pablo Rodriguez, the Ambassador of Cuba opened this exhibition, which will continue until March 17 and will be covered next week.Eraclis Mavrommatis was born in Nicosia. He studied photography in keeping up with the family tradition, working 25 years from manual to digital photography.At the same time he also took up painting and combined the two arts to produce photography with collage, with painting and works of painting with photographic input.Eraclis has taken part in 3 group exhibitions in Greece and Cyprus."Naked Truth" is the title of his second solo exhibition where "through a blending of arts he takes us on a trip of human shapes".
30 GloriousyearsLAST Friday Gloria Kassianides celebrated 30 years of her reign as Queen of Galleries of Contemporary Art. She holds second place (only) to the Nicosia Museum for historical value. There we all were. All the hundreds of gallery goers photographed by her during exhibitions. If you are not in this photographic exhibition where on earth have you been? The stunning (really stunning) show of "all our creative lives" caught by Gloria’s candid flash is (was – it’s all down now) surely the exhibition of the year. There must be a book. Books, in fact. With many (extra) discs to be placed safely in/on our archeological sites, for posterity to appreciate what really went on and what we looked like in this vital period of the island.Next at Gloria’s: Erato Hadjisavvas.Inter-disciplinary performance‘ON WEIGHT’ an inter-disciplinary piece inspired by fragments from Jeanette Winterson’s book " Weight" will have its Premiere on Sunday, March 11, at 8.30pm at the RIALTO THEATRE, LimassolThere will also be performances in Nicosia on March 30 and 31 at Ayios Andreas Market Theatre It is part of the Cyprus Dance Platform, organised by the Cyprus Ministry of Culture.For more information, phone the Rialto theatre on 25 343900 or 77 77 27 17

Another Assia manIN ADDITION to the exhibition of Kyriacos Michael Kashalos, son of the naOve painter Michael Chr. Kashalos, another artist from Assia is exhibiting in town. This is Yiannis Pelekanos, whose exhibition opened last Friday at Diachroniki Gallery, Ledras.This lovely gallery, which is right in the middle of old Nicosia is an extension of the other Diachroniki Gallery in town and the Dhali Gallery. Last Friday Fotini Papadopoulou opened the exhibition by Yiannis Pelekanos.The artist was born in Assia in 1937. He attended Assia Primary School from 1945 to 1951, but was unable to continue his studies due to financial difficulties within the family. Thus, he ended up following the tradition of that period and became a builder, and at a later stage, a building contractor. He is an entirely self-made man who transforms his memories of occupied Assia into painting. With nostalgia, he describes neighbourhoods that no longer exist; the habits, traditions and hard labour of the inhabitants of Assia, whilst continuing to look to the future.He has had ten personal exhibitions since 1989 and has also taken part in many group exhibitions.The exhibition continues until March 27.
Angels at Gallery kCONTINUING until March 17. The gallery is aflutter with art under the theme Angels. It has truly taken wing; wonderful, enlightening with an exceptional variety.
Panos Stephanidesat ApocalypseA SUPERB exhibition of paintings with 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 aesthetical hands. Is this really the last day?