Do Not Feed The Humans

Five artists create their pieces

at Pantheon Curated by

Charalambos & Vasso Sergiou

Amongst the fine array of installations I tended to be drawn to those most sculptural. These were by Chrysis Pantelides and Pani Vasiliou.

Pantelides does not intend to educate. He rather investigates mechanisms of transposing a gesture or an article into a personal visual language.

Those crushed pages of information can also be seen and read as a newspaper of its time. A jumble of information, but more likely of misinformation. Truth could be nowhere. Maybe the ancient drawings of dangerous animals on cave walls were our ancestors’ pets?

Pani Vasiliou of whom it is said studied furniture design and human behaviour under extreme conditions has a swinging couch above a pile of what I originally thought were leather "lasts".

I had a strong urge to kick into them madly. OUCH! They were of metal.

This whole exhibition could be a jokey demonstration of "Where we are NOT going from Here" ARTISTS BEWARE. But don’t give up.

Artalk 08:

Jannis Kounellis at Melina Mercouri Hall 8.00 pm on Friday

(today May 30)

"Something we need to reach today is a unity between life and our art of practice."

Jannis Kounellis, a major figure in contemporary art for almost half a century, will be in Cyprus to speak about his work in a public event, organised today (Friday, May 30) Artalk.08.

One of the most influential artists of our times, Kounellis is a living (and active) part of recent art history.

One of the main representatives of Arte Povera, Kounellis began to establish his own artistic language from the early sixties, while still a student.

In the mid-Sixties he experimented with incorporating three-dimensional materials into his paintings, which will eventually form his vocabulary: steel, cotton, coal, coffee, wood, stones, burlap sacks and later fire, stones, earth.

He gradually replaced the canvas with architectural elements (doorways, bed frames and eventually the gallery), while his installations began to resemble stage sets, in which the viewers were the actors.

Poetic, political and historical, the carefully stages installations of Jannis Kounelis evoke shared experiences of people, places and history.

Born in Piraeus, Greece in 1936, Kounellis has lived and worked in Rome since 1956. He had his first solo show in New York, in 1972. During the following decades his work was shown extensively and internationally.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, staged a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1986 – the show travelled to the Musee d’Art Contemporain, Montreal and in 1989, he was given an exhibition at the Espai Pobenou in Barcelona.

In 1994, the artist installed a selection of over 30 years of his work in a boat called Ionion and docked this floating retrospective in his home port of Piraeus.

The Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia held an exhibition of Kounellis’s work in Madrid in 1997. He has participated in Documenta (1972, 1977, 1982) and in the Venice Biennale (1974, 1976, 1980, 1984 1988).

Most recently his work was shown at the Tel Aviv Museum, Israel (2007). Art Cologne, (2006) and Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin (2008).

Jannis Kounellis will be talking to the public in Cyprus at the Melina Mercouri Hall, tonight at 8.00 pm. Presentation in Greek with simultaneous translation in English.

Information: Artalk/ Haris Pelapaishiotis 22438264

Rhea Bailey in Germany

It gives me great pleasure to announce Rhea Bailey’s participation in the international Fine Arts Exhibition Nord Art 2008 in Germany between 07/06/ 2008 – 28/09/2008, having been selected by a jury panel.

The art on display is titled "Cypriot Coast" and is a triptych 400x250, acrylic on canvas.

The triptych work of acclaimed Cypriot artist Rhea Bailey, entitled ‘Cypriot Coast’ was selected by the jury of the 11th International Art Exhibition Nord Art 2008, to be included in the KiC – Kunst inder Carlshutte prestigious international fine arts exhibition to take place between June7 and September 28, 2008 in Budelsdorf, Germany.

Nord Art is a collaborative initiative of the ACO Group and town of Budelsdorf.

This year the exhibition features works of 200 artists from 35 countries, selected from 1158 entries from 58 countries. For information regarding the exhibition, visit www.kic-nordart.de.

Rhea’s triptych works were exhibited last November at the Castelliotissa Hall in Nicosia.

In her Triptycha Rhea creates forms and gives shape to the shapeless.

Inspired by the light of her country in her artistic output, she captures in great sensitivity and ethereal quality the most infinitesimal tone of the Cypriot light and atmosphere in semi-representational to abstract style.

She conveys the sense of radiance, the refractions and penetrating quality of the Cypriot light on the sea, the flora and geomorphology of the landscape.

"Triptycha is a trilogy, each part being individual and part of a unity at the same time.

Although they can stand apart, when together the dynamic is unparalleled," comments Rhea.

The abstracted quality of place is combined with a vivid directness of painterly approach to leave an immediate trace and permanent record of the artist’s emotion.

Rhea continues to challenge her art form and material in search for the absolute spirit, to expand her creative possibilities to locate the signs of life in individual style and gesture, to express basic human emotion and to contribute to art by exhibiting her work both at home and abroad.

Rhea Bailey, nee Athanassiades, was born in 1946 in Nicosia, where she lives and works.

She studied in England at the Sir John Cass School of Art, London (1964-65) and obtained a BA Honours in Art and Design from the Liverpool College of Art (1965-69).

She is deputy Director General of IBC Cambridge, for Europe. Since 1971, she’s had 35 solo exhibitions in Cyprus, UK, USA, Greece, Spain, and has participated in over 50 group exhibitions, art festivals, art workshops, art competitions and congresses in many countries.

Her works are part of major public and private collections all over the world and she has received many international awards.

Her work has been considered as a vehicle that "provides a conceptual bridge to contemporary art forms".

Stelios Votsis

I believe the Stelios Votsis exhibition at Orosimo Gallery, Strovolos is continuing.

Stelios was born in Larnaca in 1929. He studied at the Saint Martin’s School of Arts, the Sir John Cass College and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

He graduated in 1955 from the Slade School of Arts at the University of London.

Manos Stephanides, Curator of the National Art Gallery of Greece has commented: "His art, simple and readable at a first glance, is constituted by many and disparate elements and subsequently becomes complex.

“It gives you the impression that an entire world is born by the very moment that line decides to reproduce itself. In the depth of the thought of the painter lies the problem of the secret of his geometric organisation and his deepest wish is to externalise this problem rendering it to a picture."

50 by 50 by 50, Orpheus Gallery Limassol

The Mayor of Limassol, Andreas Christou will be opening the exhibition on Thursday (June 5) at 7.30 p.m. Duration is until June 30.

Michael Harries, Director – Orpheus Gallery has sent The Cyprus Weekly this exciting news.

50 by 50 by 50 at Orpheus is a group exhibition offering a unique opportunity to view and or acquire original works by a number of accomplished and emerging artists. As the title suggests, it focuses around the character ‘50’, hence 50 artists with works measuring 50cm by 50 cm, applied to the set theme of figurative (as in the human form).

The new works of art created for the show are commendatory, clearly using the artists’ rich knowledge of the form and colour, thus offering to the eye of the spectator different styles, textures, techniques and influences in their subject matter, yet retaining individuality. To some, the set dimensions required for this exhibition posed a modest challenge, due to them being used to working on a much larger scale.

The piece entitled ‘Exodus’ by renowned artist Christos Foukaras, shows us the human form alongside that of two animals, all of which are heading in the same direction.

It is as if they are fleeing or searching, turning away from where buildings have emerged and small villages have been engulfed and turned into outer suburbs of towns/cities.

The three fly through the air, perhaps in search of grassland or other lifestyle thy both once knew, set against a brightly coloured background mixed with both modern and older buildings propped up against a wall is a ladder; a ladder leaning to an open space leaning upwards and away from the enclosure.

The work by Michalis Papadopoulos takes on a fairly minimalist approach, both in its style and colour depicting a pair of feet with the remainder of the legs just outlined and placed in a sitting position on a chair with upper torso unseen.

By comparison is the vibrant use of colour portraying a corpulent female partially clothed nude by Natassa Christoforou. Andreas Paraskeva’s steam baths scene exposes the male figures moving into the shadows all worked amongst the main shades of rich earthen reds and browns. While Andros Efstathiou’s painting offers a more classical expressionist style of a female in a gentle, ladylike pose.

Touching on the Realistic works created by Michael Elia and Rea Kontou that complement the romantic "almost Vettriano" piece entitled "The Kiss" by Anthi Farmaka.

Other modern and contemporary works reflect the ‘Pop Art era’, whereas some have chosen to use mixed media by combining cotton materials, metal or ceramic. Just a small taste of the exhibition, 50 by 50 by 50.

List of participating artists:

Christos Foukaras, Nitsa Hadjigeorgiou, Andreas Paraskeva, George Erotokritou, Mattheos Christou, Glyn Hughes, Zenon Jepras, Andros Efstathiou, Konstantinos Stefanou, Hara Chryssanthaki, Marlen Karletidou, Loukiana Papadopoulou, Georgia Michaelidou, Miriam Sukhanova Foukara, Eleni Volou, Luis Guzman, Panicos Tsangaras, Chrysanthi Farmaka, Marios Varellas, Chrysoula Skepetzi, Popi Nicolaou, Panayiotis Vittis, Doros Heracleous, Theodosis Theodosiou, Michalis Papadopoulos, Alexandros Vayiotis, Toula Mala, Katie Sabry, Spyroula Skordi, Triass Torres Ramon, Ero Farmaka, Alexia Hadjinicolaou, Joanna Voskou, Paris Sivakas, Zurab Gulishvilli, Michael Elia, Dini Christoforou, Ana Varella, Maria Michael, Yiolanda Charalambous, Anna Georghiou, Ken Williams, Tatiana Depoutatova and Rea Kontou.