A strange

week

FOR a while I thought some recruiting sergeants had turned up to encourage the young to leave the island to study art.

But, no, it was our Haris Pellapaisiotis organising his very welcome seminars, symposiums with manifestationary eagerness.

We can learn a lot from Haris, an artist with vision and ability.

Now and again the audience sat with interest listening to nothing said thrice by a visionary lecturer but not from Haris.

Richard Wentworth was brilliant, too, and don’t forget his exhibition at the Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art which continues until July 31.0

Autobiography 2

revisited

FIONA Stanbury went to Tefkros Angelides’s exhibition at Opus 39 and here are her comments:

"I was very impressed by Tefkros’s pictures and his artistic approach. Using all kinds of materials, from torn water colour paper, to coloured glass strips, mosaic tiles, shells, pieces of wire, leaves, and drawings, he creates images that are very complete.

"They invite you to look very closely at them, and the more you look, the more you become aware of the complex dialogue between the many different types of edges and textures.

"Tefkros is extremely sensitive in his use of different kinds of edges, and it is evident that every element in the picture is very carefully considered. Some pictures are almost like sculptures, in the way that the paper is gouged to reveal layers of drawings or textures, and sometimes the materials are placed in such a way that they stand out in relief.

"There are also pictures with objects stuck on, such as plastic figures, or with pieces of wire pinned on , or twisted around pins in patterns. The images evoke their own world and are not merely a collection of assembled objects.

"Each picture brings together the various components in a way that rises above their individual identities, and creates an extremely poetical and personal composition.

"I especially liked the pictures with the torn sheets of painted watercolour paper (which looked like the sea, with the edges like frothy waves) and the way this played against the hard, uncompromising elements of glass tiles, wood and strips of wood."

This exhibition is not to be missed and you will want to look for a long time.

It closes on Saturday, May 13.

He’s back and

En-Plo’s got him

JAMES Gibbs shows his new work at En-Plo, Paphos harbour until the 23rd of the month.

His exhibition features a diversity of new work, "from the empty quarter (!) and Arabian Sea, with much emphasis on sardine eyes and the design and mechanisms of shoal behaviour."

The exhibition will include landscapes of Cyprus, the UK and the Indian Ocean and recent abstracts of the seasons.

Dora Qronti Shantou is not exhibiting at Dromena, Strovolos at the moment but is replaced by paintings by Takis Kalorkotis whose exhibition will be opened by Demetris Christofias, the President of the House of Representatives, on Wednesday the 17th May, continuing until the 27th of the month. Dora will be having an exhibition in autumn.

Maria Papacharalambous’s latest work can be seen at Artos Foundation from May 26 until June 10.

Angelos Michaelides is currently exhibiting at Artos.

Marcia Leonidou is at Pizza Express until June 16.

My Shop (the exhibition) continues until May 19th. This is near Finikas Restaurant, just off Ledra Street, Nicosia.

Alpha Gallery has Alekos Fassianos until May 14.

Vassilis Mita is at Diachroniki until the 29th of the month.

Constantinos Constantinides (Windows to the Soul) closes at Apocalypse tomorrow, Saturday the 13th.

Pablo Antonio Rodriguez Vidal, Ambassador of Cuba in Cyprus, said in his opening of Constantinos’ exhibition: " Fountain of nocturnal water for Black Tears, as an old Cuban song says. In his works, the Maestro shows us as well the deep sorrows and pains that his soul shelters; the innermost feelings hurt by the division of his beloved land; then the clay emits a light that illuminates the past and the future and becomes his weapon."

Glyn Hughes, at Gloria Gallery, ground floor "Post Wrexham," first floor Artist in Residence "Pedieos Ormitikos." Closing on Monday 15th when the ten canvases will be completed by about 7.30pm.

Art Mmisshimou is continuing at Limassol with Bushra Shamma.

Tassos Stephanides 1917-1996

PAINTINGS by Tassos, Kate and Panos Stephanides can be seen from tonight at Kypriaki Gonia until May 30.

Dr Antonis Danos writes on Tassos’ painting:

"Stephanides belongs to a group of important Cypriot artists who did not receive ‘formal’ art education in some foreign art schools.

Despite this, and often in contrast to some of their equally important, art-school educated colleagues, they produced work that did not go through acute qualitative and/or formal changes.

Already existing in the work that Stephanides presented in the 1950s and, especially, in the 60s (with his first solo exhibition), are basic formal and subject matter elements that will run through his future artistic course.

He presented expressionistic paintings – with references to early European modernism – that come a short distance from total abstraction. It is an abstraction, however, that is far from the cool, geometric and formal ‘purity’ of Piet Mondrian, for instance.

Instead, it is close to Vassily Kandinsky’s early abstraction, and which contains, even vaguely, recognisable forms and, more importantly, is imbued with spirituality and idealism.

As Stephanides said in a 1979 interview in Simerini: "Painting, as with all fine arts, is contemplation, spirituality."

And, even though, in the same interview, he expresses his objection to a "return (in international art) of representational painting," he was himself too restless and dynamic a spirit to abolish completely any recognisable elements in his pictures, and to deal exclusively with issues of purely formal nature."

Cosmos at Opus 39

Mixed with a dash of Barcelona, a group exhibition called Cosmos opens on Monday, May 15 at Opus 39, continuing until the 27th.

Here are the five:

Evgenia Karamouzi was born in Athens and studied Graphic Design at the Higher School of Art, Thessaloniki, with professor V. Dimitris.

In 1999, she studied Art Therapy in Barcelona and also engraving and lithography.

Niki Pashiou was born in Nicosia and studied at the Higher School of Art, Thessaloniki and later in Barcelona.

Terpsichore Xanthopoulou was born in Thessaloniki, studied in that town and later in Barcelona

Chrysanthi Farmakas was born in Nicosia, studied in Athens under Tetsis and Paraspyrou, and then Engraving in Barcelona.

Andreana Campanella was born in Nicosia and has also studied in Thessaloniki.

School project becomes

thriving poster business

NEW ORLEANS (AP)

All Bud Brimberg was hoping for back in 1975 was a project for his entrepreneurial class and maybe a way to avoid practicing law.

What he ended up with was a 31-year love affair and a booming business that has made the annual posters sold at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival valuable collectables.

''I was just flying by the seat of my pants,'' Brimberg, 56, said. ''I'm still doing that. I always get it together, but I always wonder how.''

Brimberg had just finished law school at Tulane University and, on a lark, took the class aimed at sparking entrepreneurial enthusiasm. Part of the class was to come up with a business that would work - at least in theory.

Somewhere along the line he hit on the idea of colourful, artistic, inexpensive posters.

The first year, Brimberg found an artist to do a takeoff on the grand marshal of a brass band.

''To build interest I decided to make it a limited edition,'' he said. ''We would make 1,000 of them and number them.''

A second edition of 300 posters had to be made after a drunk spilled beer over that many after Brimberg set up to sell them at an evening concert on a Mississippi riverboat.

The five-colour poster sold for $3.95.

''I got an A on the course and made $500,'' Brimberg said. ''That was a lot of money to me in those days.''

The second year, Brimberg produced 1,000 numbered posters - at $8 each - and 1,000 signed by the artist for $12 each. Brimberg said he cleared a ''couple of thousand.''

''That's when I first decided this could be a business,'' he said.

By the third year, the posters were selling for $15 unsigned and $35 signed.

''That time I made enough to feed me for a year,''' Brimberg said.

For a while, Brimberg's company did posters for other events - the Boston Marathon, the Albuquerque, New Mexico, balloon festival, and a Winter Olympics. But he felt he could be more successful concentrating on Jazz Fest.

This year's poster of rock & roll pioneer Fats Domino was $59 numbered, $235 signed by the artist, $595 signed by both the artist and Domino and $895 for a canvas edition. All sold out the first day of the Jazz Fest.

''I'm the Cecil B. DeMille of posters,'' Brimberg said. ''I make high, high quality posters. The colour doesn't fade, the detail is sharp. They are art works.''

Brimberg wouldn't detail Jazz Fest's cut of the proceeds, but until the festival added sponsors this year, poster sales were the second biggest money maker, right behind ticket sales.

The value of the posters rises sharply every year. That original 1975 poster that went for $3.95 is now worth $1,925 .

Brimberg doesn't have one of them.

''It was just inside the door in our old office,'' he said. ''Someone walked out with it one day.''