Exhibition of sculpture

Michelle Niewel and Brinley Neil Stephens are exhibiting in Polis.

This exhibition has already opened at the Art Gallery Cafe Kivotos 3000 Polis It will continue until July 1. Excellent work.

For this show, Michelle Niewel exhibits her carved sculpture in two varied materials.

Her carving into recycled stone presents us with a freer abstract object. In both materials she demonstrates that the natural resilience of the stone she uses dictates the final outcome. The natural stone sculptures show us more of a battle with the material.

Her refusal to use any electrical tools to make the process easier leaves us with a sculpture which has a primitive, earthy, somewhat medieval quality inspired by Cyprus history. Michelle studied in Italy and Germany and has taught stone carving in Cyprus and Germany.

Brinley Neil Stephens has chosen to show a variety of work made during the last three years spent in Cyprus.

This work takes us from abstract sculpture through to a more figurative form, from two-dimensional objects through to drawings.

In this exhibition he hopes that the viewer can see and appreciate how the artist thinks and develops his work.

The common thread that relates to all the pieces on show is their belief and integrity to the subject matter that they refer to, whether this relates to engineering, plant forms, the found object or the basic quality of the material itself.

Neil studied art at Winchester and Cyprus and has also worked at The Cyprus College of Art.

The exhibition will run until July 1. Tuesday –Saturday 11:00 -18:00.

Opposite police station in Polis Chrysochous.

Meeting with

history

NiCos Kouroushis at Castelliotissa, Paphos Gate, Nicosia.

This dynamic exhibition opened on Tuesday (before the page went to bed) and continues until June 23

Nicos is amongst our top major artists who never puts a foot wrong in his endeavour to shake us up from visual and intellectual slumber. Visiting hours 10.00-1.00, 6.00-10.00.

A must. Full crit next week.

Where do we go from

here - Power House

This wondrous exhibition from the collection of Nicos Pattichis at the Power House covers so many aspects of art interest that it is surely an ideal place to take students or even the very young, for amongst the superb exhibits there is so much quality of interest to discover.

Discerning adults, of course, have already been several times. Like the also wonderful personal selection of art arranged by Marina of the Popular Bank Collection earlier in the year the value of sensitive individual choice fills the spaces with warmth and affection.

Nicos Pattichis’ choice is extremely wide-reaching. You must go. You will even find work that maybe didn’t excite you in the past.

This exhibition will wake you up to the wide range of art created, loved and bought here. The art scene rides on in beauty and triumph. Art is survival.

Experience of

a life time

It was in those dark times in the late Seventies in Marcou Drakou Street that the Goethe Institut introduced us to the films of R.W. Fassbinder.

Early in June, of this year, Juliane Lorenze, President of the R.W. Fassbinder Foundation, gave a very personal chat at the Weaving Mill. Memories of a lifetime were recalled with great warmth and sensitivity.

Catch up with

coming events

The always interesting (and extremely energetic) Doros Heracleous exhibits at Silks Gallery Limassol’ from June 20, at 20:00 with an after party at Brio Cafe. The exhibition stays on until July 20.

The superb Alexander Bacht Safarov exhibition at Gallery K continues. Energy, brilliant observation and great colour. What more do you want.

The group exhibition of 50 artists (50 by 50) continues with considerable interest at Orpheus, Limassol until June 30.

Rolling Frame rolls on at Aeschylos Arcade (Nicosia) until tomorrow.

Elena Adamidou continues at ‘Kyklos’ art gallery, Paphos.

Through a glass

window

There is so much on. Sometimes hard to reach. After a request by a gallery to give more attention to an exhibition, I actually waited for one and a half hours on a blistering Saturday morning but to no avail. The exhibition looked great "through a glass window passionately".

Che's children tired of use of

image for corporate profit

HAVANA (AP)

Two of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's children said they were tired of seeing their father's image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand "embarrassing."

Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida March, said the commercialisation of her father's image contributed to tension between rich and poor in some countries.

"Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing," she wrote during an Internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of what would have been her father's 80th birthday on June 14.

Icon

Born to a well-to-do family in Argentina in 1928, Guevara helped Fidel Castro overthrow Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. But he was executed in 1967 while trying to foment a similar revolution in Bolivia.

He has since become a pop icon, considered a symbol of rebellion even 40 years after his death, thanks to 1960 portrait by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda.

Variations of the image, featuring Guevara with a defiant stare and starred beret, can now be found the world over, on T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and refrigerator magnets.

Guevara's children took Internet queries for two hours, fielding questions from users in Qatar, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Cuba, where both live.

Aleida Guevara was asked about the use of her father's image to sell British vodka and French soft drinks. She decried those campaigns as well one in Switzerland that uses his likeness to peddle cell phones.

"We don't want money, we demand respect," wrote Guevara, who is a trained physician like her father.

Cuba erected a bronze statue of Guevara in the city of Santa Clara, site of his key military victory on New Year's Eve 1958, which helped prompt Batista to flee the island and usher Castro into power.

A towering likeness of him also adorns Havana's Revolution Plaza and his picture and quotations are found on billboards across the country.

But Cuba's communist government also has worked hard to make money off of the revolutionary's image, stocking tourist shops with T-shirts, postcards and other trinkets bearing his face and three-letter signature.

Despite that, Guevara's son Camilo said he supported Fidel's younger brother Raul, who succeeded him as President in February.

The younger Castro waited 49 years to become Cuba's leader, and Guevara said "it would be stupid not to take advantage of all that experience." "The vote of any citizen is secret, (but) I'll make mine public: YES FOR RAUL," Guevara wrote.

Film

Actor Benicio Del Toro recently won best actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's 4 1/2 hour "Che." Presented as two films, "Che" follows Guevara and Castro's triumphant guerrilla campaign to overthrow Batista's government as well as Guevara's downfall and execution.

Guevara's son and daughter said they had not yet seen the films.

"I think Hollywood making its version of his life is positive, as long as they are objective and faithful to real life," Camilo Guevara wrote.

Bloomberg gives $60m

to NY groups

NEW YORK (AP)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated more than $175m to New York and social service organisations through the Carnegie Corporation, including more than $60min two-year grants.

Officially, Carnegie said that the 542 grants were the latest in a string of gifts by an anonymous donor who has given more than $175m over seven years to New York's nonprofit community – but it is widely known that the donor is Bloomberg.

The beneficiaries include well-known names like the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Apollo Theater and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but also smaller performance spaces in Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx.

The social service organisations range from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York, Citymeals-on-Wheels and the Gay Men's Health Crisis to numerous community centres and programmes for job training and the homeless.

The Carnegie Corporation said it has been selecting small and medium-size New York City-based organisations to receive the donor's funds since 2002.

Bloomberg, a billionaire many times over after founding his financial information company, was ranked No 7 on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's 2007 list of the country's Top 50 donors.

The two-term Mayor has said he plans to focus full time on philanthropy once he leaves City Hall at the end of 2009. To that end, he established the Bloomberg Family Foundation.

Stass Paraskos’s Places
Cyprus College of Art

The private viewing at 33 Mehmet Ali Street, Larnaca continued throughout the week. Popping in on the Tuesday I noticed the wonderful building was still throbbing with energy.

Every space was full of work. A whole room was full of paintings and drawings of nudes; some completed some in progress. Artist and teacher Andros Efstathiou took me around.

"Founded in 1969 the Cyprus College of Art is unlike any other art college in Europe and offers a highly creative environment in which students are treated first and foremost as adult human beings. Our courses are taught in small groups so tutors can identify individual needs and help achieve ambitions in the worlds of art and design. Cyprus College of Art tutors are all professional artists who exhibit around the world, and have work in collections raging from the State Collection of Modern Art in Cyprus to the Tate Gallery in London. They will seek to guide you as mentors rather than telling you what you can and cannot do"

Applications

If you live in Cyprus only, contact: Cyprus College of Art, PO Box 61506, 8135 Paphos. Telephone: 26270557. Telefax: 2696 4269. Email: enquiries @artcyprus.org

If you live outside Cyprus you must write to: Cyprus College of Art, 7 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4AQ, England, Telephone: 0208 676 4610. Telefax: 0709 219 4514, Email: enquiries@artcyprus.org

Alternatively visit their internet site at: www.artcyprus.org

Stass’ Honour

I hear that Stass Paraskos has been nominated for an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bolton in recognition for his outstanding contribution to the field of art.

The award of a Higher Doctorate is the highest academic distinction available within any UK university

It appears the distinction of the Doctor of the University (D.Univ.) will be conferred when he is admitted to the Degree at a Congregation of the University planned for either Thursday June 26 or Friday June 27.

Art at the Falcon

There are school summer exhibitions all over the island

The Falcon School had their End of Course Art Exhibition on Wednesay June 4, and like last year – I popped in. The teacher of art is Sue Adlington who certainly achieves the highest of standards from her students. The exhibition contained excellent work from the fifth, sixth and seventh forms. All were great.

Space is short so here is the list of the A Level students who showed their dissertations and practical work All of the highest possible standards .

Melanie Aristidou, Tatiana der Partogh, Theognosia Shioni, Tara Tate, Sylva Toumayian, Ellen Vafeades, Romy Wakil, Stavros Chrysanthou, Christian Kafaridou, Michael Photiou, Katerina Stephanides and Marina Themis.

Please check with Coming Events for more information. Nicos Kouroushis has an exhibition at Casteliotissa which opens on Tuesday June 17.

Antonis Kalas has an exhibition at ORISMO Gallery

Rolling Frame at Aeschylos Arcade, 75b Aeschylos Old Nicosia.