30 March 2006

NICOSIA ART FESTIVAL 2006
The Lefkothea Rotaract Club Nicosia is organising the Nicosia Art Festival 2006 from May 29 to June 6.
Its main purpose is to promote the arts in Cyprus and at the same time to contribute to society by distributing the proceeds to charity organisations such as the Cyprus Red Cross and Doctors of the World.
The exhibition, which will take place at Castelliotisssa Hall (Paphos Gate), will be held under the aegis of the First Lady, Fotini Papadopopoulou, who will perform the opening ceremony.
The artists are free to set the price for their work and 40% of the net proceeds will be donated to the organisations. The event is also sponsored by the cultural services of the Ministry of Education, CyBC (media coverage) and other organisations and companies.
All exhibits will be published at a web page and will also be included in a CD-ROM with the artists’ resumes.
The CD will be distributed to various artistic and other organisations around the world.
The Lefkothea Rotaract Club invites professional artists, photographers and designers to complete the participation request form by March 31, 2006.
Artists can participate with more than one item depending on the availability of space.
The paintings, photographs and graphic artefacts should be submitted framed and ready to be exhibited.
For more information please contact Maria Ylannoura on 99 515790, or Haris Jacovidou on 99 653146, 22 844000.
DAPHNE AT MORPHI
Daphne Mavrovouniotis-Trimiklinotis’s latest work, entitled Of Sales and Reductions, will be opened at Morphi Gallery, Limassol, on Tuesday, April 4, by the Minister of the Interior, Andreas Christou, at 8 pm, and will continue until April 14.
TATIANA FERAHIAN, AT OPUS 39
Garo Keheyan, President of the Pharos Trust, will open the Tatiana Ferahian exhibition on Monday, April 3, at 8pm.
The exhibition will then continue until April 17.
Last October the artist participated in the 2nd Biennale at Beijing.
This exhibition is titled Playing the Field.
The subject matter of her art works evolve from the interesting and often conflicting visual panoramas from her immediate surroundings.
Tatiana Ferahian was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and completed her studies in graphic design at Frederick Institute of Technology here in Cyprus in 1991 and of fine arts with the Empire State College (SUNY), later working under the artist Helene Black for a five-year period.
She was admitted as a candidate for the degree of Master of Liberal Studies at the University of Denver.
THE OTHER DIMENSION AT ARTOS
To celebrate international poetry day on March 21, crowds of poets and poetry lovers will ARTos Foundation in Nicosia.
The programme was divided into three sections: Presentiment; Dreams, The Divine.
The evening’s direction was by Nicos Charalambous with art direction by Akis Ioannides.
The organising committee was Nora Hadjisotiriou and Lily Michaelides.
Music introduced each section, based on the ancient poems of Homer. It was composed and conducted by Akis Ioannides.
The singer Margarita Illia, who is originally from Limassol, and who trained in Hungary and London, where she is currently living, was perfect for such an evening.
Angelos Angelides played the clarinet and Gareth Griffiths the trumpet.
25 poets took part and the readings were in Greek, Turkish and English.
Video art was used, including work by Achilleous Kentonis and Maria Papacharalambous using the theme Paradise.
FUTURE EXHIBITIONS
Miriam McConna will open the David Lester exhibition at Kyklos Art Gallery, Paphos, on Friday, April 14 at 7.30pm, which will continue until Saturday, April 29.
This exhibition will include oils, watercolours and mixed media work. David Lester’s paintings are semi-representational and abstract works, which reflect ideas, situations and experiences. They show his interest in rich colour glazes, rhythmic composition and unusual perspective.
While many of his works have been based on the landscape, he is now moving again towards abstraction.
David is also one of the principle organisers of “Open Studios”, coming to Paphos in September. This promises to be an enormously popular event and is based on the well-established scheme in which he participated in Cambridge, England.
SIMPLY CYPRUS
Print Art Consultancy, in association with Curium Gallery, Limassol, are holding their 3rd Simply Cyprus Exhibition at En Plo, in Paphos Harbour, from Sunday April 9 until Wednesday April 19.
Open daily from 10am till 7pm, this annual exhibition has become very popular with established artists, as well as up and coming artists who otherwise would not have an outlet in Cyprus. The theme of “Simply Cyprus” encourages the artist to look at the diverse and beautiful surroundings to be found all over the island.
This year there will be more than 25 artists exhibiting and the exciting diversity of both subject matter and style should appeal to most tastes.
Two of the exhibitors are Mandy Bunn, from Paphos, a professionally-trained artist, who specialises in pet portraits, and Teresa Moran, who enjoys depicting the local scenery.
For further information call either Print Art Consultancy on 25580726 or Curium Gallery on 2534501.
DECONSTRUCTION
Giota Ioannidou has been at Apocalypse Gallery.
Very strong and powerful work. Emotional figurations that loom out across Apocalypse’s vast spaces.
An outstanding exhibition, curiously related to our condition as seen from TV, and newspapers, the agony of current goings on.
All delivered in superb paintwork and emotional ‘over the edge’ balance in aesthetics. This was at Apocalypse Gallery until March 29.
The new show at Apocalypse will be paintings by Zacharias Koumblis which opens tonight, continuing until April 18.
WORLD WATER DAY
An Island-wide contest organised by the Water Board to mark World Water Day produced a total of 106 paintings and posters submitted by pupils of 16 secondary schools.
The art work was put on display at the Famagusta Gate Cultural Centre, Nicosia, on Wednesday and continues until tonight.
Thirst prize of £500 was shared by Panayiota Nicolaou, of the Archbishop Kyprinaos Lyceum, and Theodoulos Polyviou, of the GC School of Careers.
The second prize went to Christos Drakos, of teh GC School of Careers, and Kyryali Papadopoulou, of the Kyklos “B” Gymnasium, while the third prize was also shared. It went to Christina Parize, of Terra Santo College and Pantelis Nicolaou, of the Makarios Lyceum, Dassoupolis.
Outstanding poster work was submitted by Tara Tate and Tatiana der Parthogh, both of the Falcon School, Nicosia.
The two teenagers had obviously captured the poster idea to near perfection in simple, strong design and carefully effective colours.
Tara won a scholarship to Cyprus College, while Tatiana was among those designed Best in School. She also won a cash prize of £100.
Special mention should be made of the poster Water-Life, by Giorgos Christodoulou, of the Philips Commercial School, who was also designated “Best in School”.
In general, there was quite a large number of good poster work, but some of the students had either not been told specifically what posters should be or did not quite grasp the idea. Pity, as there were some very good paintings.
Now that they have seen the exhibition and all the excitement is over, they will surely produce better and more effective paper work when the occasion arises.
A few decades ago, Cypriot school art was famous for getting international prizes. It seems that standard has returned.
Could it be that nowadays, instead of villages, vraka, donkeys and traditional festivities, our youngsters have ventured into the new with paintings of concern?
MAKING A STATEMENT
Michalis Manoussakis, at CK Art Gallery has chunks cut out of wooden board creating visual spaces, and these cuts are real, creating another reality.
So, in a way, for a while, you don’t know where you are.
Yet, every picture registers as a statement, whether on human relationships or an aesthetic point of view. Sublime painting too with newer colours than are normally seen in the town’s galleries.


retyped by nix-paris 20070717