19 October 2006

Full of itSOMETIMES you just can’t see the art for the tease and these weeks have been full of it in the larger shows. Trapped by the glitz and smiles. Kept in the dark. Solo shows are most interesting at the moment. Walking from gallery to gallery, where pavement art is composed of derelict spaces and parked cars, you soon discover that there is no safe way to cross the road (on foot), from the Pharos Centre to Pantheon Gallery for example.
From behindthe barsDAWN Luing has a serious exhibition at Marzano, Diagorou 27, Nicosia.The works would certainly look better with more lighting by the canvases. Impressive tactile surfaces in abstractions. Figurative works contain humour (rare here).Here is a comment by the artist who taught art in High Security Prisons in the south-east of England for almost seven years until she moved to Cyprus. Whilst teaching within the prison system, she and her students participated in the Annual Koestler Awards Scheme for Art and Literature in Prisons and Special Hospitals all over the UK, exhibited in London and won many awards and prizes.Dawn says: "Both Cypriot and Greek poetry and song lyrics currently influence a lot of my work. Poems and songs paint pictures in the mind. I interpret these impressions into paintings. I am also fascinated by the effect of light and shade in all its aspects. Here in Cyprus we are fortunate to have so much light, especially compared to the UK. It is a paradise for artists such as myself."If I have to categorise my work, it would be figurative expressionism. Generally, I paint figures, whether this is in exploring textures and shadows upon the human body or expressing emotions with, long, lean figures living their lives on canvas or wood."Lecture seriescontinuesJULIA Astreou Christoforou will be giving the second and third lectures at 7.30pm, on October 21, at Monoportis House, St Barbara Square, Kaimakli.The subject is Cypriot Traditional Embroidery and Woven Fabrics. She will examine the various groups, the history, the development, interaction with other countries, places of production and technique. Examples from Kaimakli.
Miro Skapoulliat Gallery GloriaUntil 1st November. Very Impressive and dynamic canvases.Titled ‘Kaleidiscope’ the exhibition which opened last night includes a line of computerly work, processed printings portrayed on canvas which are of a limited edition. Continuing creating in the space of art Miro re- exposes her work via the kaleidoscope. Nowadays, the technology has immediately influenced the art and the figurative authors worldwide. Always aspiring to the view that every piece of art should reflect positive energy, once again she experiments with colour.This time the experimentation comes via the computer.The light, the power of colour, the game of opposition of colours, the special function of colours, the movement and the music together with a dreamy, childlike and a very beloved game called kaleidoscope, is the stimulus of these new artistic creations.Miro was born in Nicosia and studied painting at the Moscow Academic Art institution, an institute named after Surikov, in Moscow from 1987-1994.Nikoletta Antonopoulou has an exhibition at Alpha Gallery, corner of Makarios Avenue and 3 Papanikoli Street, Nicosia.It is called Movement–Colour –Light. Nikoletta Antonopoulou was born in Athens in 1955 and studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Yiannis Moralis. She then continued her studies in painting and mosaics at the Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris. The works presented in this exhibition present action and movement by people, machines and animals. They show the subject’s movement through air, sea and land. The artist’s work is characterised by her interest in capturing movement and an instant moment of action. She wants to show the light, the colour, and position of the subject and its surroundings at that single moment.. Impressionistic, expressionistic and American post-war elements and influences are all present in her art. Her movement is expressed through free, rapid and strong brushstrokes, an intense mix of colours and a rich use of paints.
Tribute to the SeasAT EN-PLO Gallery, Paphos Harbour, James E.Gibbs presents mainly marine paintings, black -tip and scallop, hammerhead sharks, coral reef ecosystems. An important show. Large works too. Later at Bait Muzna Gallery, Oman. Not to be missed, until October 30.
Pharos CentreshowDETANICO & Lain, After Utopia, is on at the Pharos Centre, In Nicosia."Working within the interstices of fine art and graphic design, in addition to possessing a strong collaborative drive. "Detanico & Lain have developed a practice based on the playful displacement of meaning. They do this via the language of the information age, but their wit allows them to avoid the sole reliance on the complexity of technological means. Instead they make use of simple procedures in order to produce powerful visual poetics." Must go again. Try harder.

Mariza Bargilly’s urban landscapes MARIZA Bargilly – having taken into consideration and been influenced by her expertise as a set designer – is presenting her new visual art works at Opus Gallery until October 28.The bad taste that dominates towns and the lack of character and imagination in buildings that come together to create a complete lack of visual stimulation and how all these become one with the environment is what has driven this painter to create her own made-up urban areas. Borrowing elements from architectural forms and the stage, Mariza opens our eyes to a new town landscape. Her works include a series of drawings in black-and-white and a sense of freer form works in oils on canvas.
NicosNicolaides posthumouslyELENI Nikia, Director of Cultural Services, will open the posthumous exhibition of paintings, sketches and drawings by Nicos Nicolaides at 7.30pm, which will continue until Thursday November 9. It is at Steghi Grammaton kai Technon, in Victor Hugo Street, Limassol.
Pizza toppingNINA Sumarac is at Pizza Express until October 25.This is brand new work, by a talented artist, who is branching out into new directions.More info on 99852123 .
Trifling SanctuariesIN A Pantheon show enitled Trifling Sanctuaries, Sophia Hadjipapa explores the role and significance of a viewpoint in painting. The series of paintings being exhibited began a few years ago with a sketches in the bath that made the artist contemplate the small rituals that each one of us invents to ‘lengthen up our lives.’ Quite an unusual look at the usual. Quite a popular opening, too. Clear, pristine paintings with private viewpoints. Highly accomplished technically and bold subjects, too. A very pleasant surprise.
Powerful close-upsSAVVAS Georgiades has an exhibition at C.K. Art Gallery.These are highly-accomplished realistic figurative paintings. Some have exaggerated proportions with a preference for elongation. "Close-ups" can be powerful.
Saucy inviteWORKS by Alexandrakis Alexandraki (1913- 1969) are on show at Gallery k. There is a saucy invitation card with girlie poses. It opens on October 25.
All sorts of thoughtsMONICA Demetriades’s exhibition was opened at Technis Dromena Gallery, Strovolos, by Dr Rita Severis, art historian and author last Sunday and will continue until the 25th of the month. Monica’s themes are abstract but they conjour up all sorts of thoughts and memories. Fields, flowers, suggestions of the core of landscapes, appear in very painterly works.The emotions come deep from within yet spatially the works can contain distances further afield. Often quite ambiguous, rich in personal messages yet understood in feeling and intellect by individual viewers . and memories
Invisible DialoguesLAST day for the excellent exhibition by Demetris Menikou, which is entitled Invisible Dialogues.It was opened last week at Kypriaki Gonia, Larnaca, by the former Minister of Education Dr Chrisostomos Sofianos, to a packed and responsive gallery.Here is a brilliant debut. Superb paintings, full of vital imagination and superb colour, enough to make most of the rest of the country’s artists look as if they are in mourning. A true discovery. Go. Today.
Great jointSTASS Paraskos and Stelios Votsis still have their joint show at Morphi Gallery, Limassol, until November 6.You see them here. You see them there. Now together everywhere. But why?
Gloria Maratheftiat Kypriaki GoniaGLORIA Marathefti’s exhibition Earth Sky and Sea will be opened by the Mayor of Larnaca, Mr Andreas Moyseos at Kypriaki Gonia in Larnaca on Wednesday, October 25 at 7.30pm and will continue until November 12. It has been written: "Gazing at Gloria’s paintings is like going on a journey of exploration. The deeper we go into her compositions the more images, lost civilizations and forgotten dreams we discover."The often cold colours and rich textures form shapes and movements which take us into the depths of human dreams, memories and expectations."Elements of the Earth, Sky and Sea are all part of fascinating visions, put together by the painter in well structured and sensitively-coloured compositions. Sudden explosions of bright, warmer colours make the whole experience more exciting.The almost abstract paintings depict Gloria’s feeling that things which are not obvious are seen more clearly in the shadow and in the mist. They are more impressive when they are partly hidden and they leave one’s imagination free to wander into her world.Gloria was born in Varosha and now lives and works in Larnaca. She studied Graphic Design and Fine Art at Hornsey College of Art (Middlesex University) in London and is a member of EKATE. Her work can be found in the State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art, in Municipal Galleries and private collections in Cyprus and abroad.