Yellow Trainers

"I do not now fool myself, to let imagination jade me; for every reason excites to this, that my lady loves me. She did commend my yellow stockings of late."

William (Shakespeare) wrote this before he got down to Hamlet and may have bought WH (?) a pair and you all know that Bedwyr Williams was short listed for the Beck’s Futures Prize with a whole rack of size 13 trainers.

Anyway, forget Malvolio, for the Arts Page in its continual search for great art has discovered a pair of Yellow Trainers at Spike, 18a Onasagorou, Nicosia.

Not only that but I’ve also been seeing yellow cars everywhere these days.

The daffodils have been early this year, too.

Constantina Stavrou at Gloria’s Gallery

THE artist quotes Larry Alloway, from 1958, in the introduction to her exhibition:

"Our definition of culture is being stretched beyond the fine art limits… and refers to the whole complex of human activities. Mass art is urban and democratic."

What Larry said at the ICA in Dover Street , London, years ago still stands today and appears to have taken root at Saloniki.

Constantina Stevrou is from Nicosia but studied In Saloniki and now lives there.

Saloniki produces very good painters originating from Cyprus. It is not only their own talents which shine but obviously excellent teaching which brings out their personal qualities.

The ex-students appear to be discovering themselves, their own identity. Many of our artists who have studied elsewhere abroad return to the island full of "trends", their original talents lost in a sea of "isms".

There are unnerving examples of young – and not so young - who create seemingly excellent work for a while then get totally lost, having lost their roots and finding nowhere creatively to go.

They have not studied in Saloniki.

Constantina’s exhibition is like pop-art with a bite. The bite being in content and application..

There is one of a dog looking at you.

There is someone holding a ‘mobile’ ? With splendrous sweep and verve the outline of that same dog has, pacing across the canvas.

The picture seems to say "beware" of your pet.

"See me run, I’m wild"

Elsewhere in this lively show, in which utterly complicated imagery is bound and melded into a whole structure which could be read as a "story" or as a Pollokian abstract; imagination rules.

Scampering across the canvas with painterly glee one painterly effort leads to another, resulting in splendid work

Ground-breaking exhibition

NICOS Kouroushis is at Essere, 25 Demostheni Severis, Avenuem Nicosia,

This ground-breaking exhibition is held by one of our major artists and is in a furniture shop. Don’t expect impressionistic oils above a walnut sideboard or a bust of Beethoven on the grande piano.

Consider instead the gun holding up a table lamp by Kenneth Starke, where you always expect Barbara Stanwyck to light up her bleached tresses with a demonic smile and shoot Fred McMurray in the groin.

Nicos has covered the floor with those huge silkscreens of his which once got laid at Casteliotissa.

All the greats are in on it.

Those folded boats of his have cast their anchors at pivotal points in the vast space. A tumble of conceptualities are poised above the widest sofa in town and nearby someone has thrown (on purpose) a delightfully textural wrap over a large stuffed somewhat.

Neon symbolic seriousnesses, having strolled from a biennale –or two – rest in glass coffins all plugged on above knife-edged basic shapes resting on cushions plumped up like a baby’s pillow.

Essere is across the road from the Pharos Centre of Contemporary Art, where there is a Richard Wentworth exhibition.

It was Richard who said: "I live in a ready-made landscape."

The Arts Page will discuss his work next week.

Most impressive collection

A MOST impressive exhibition at Kypriaki Gonia contains the work of Tasos, Kate and Panos (their son) Stephanides in memory of the ten years since Tassos’ death and will continue until the 30th of the month

Tassos was born in Nicosia in 1917 and Kate in 1925. They are not in the Limassol Leventis exhibition at the Carob Mill, but can be seen to great advantage at Kypriaki Gonia.

The Arts Page has written already about Tassos. Here is an account from the State Gallery of Contemporary Art – where she has a superb painting - on the career of Kate.

Kate Stephanidou was born in Limassol in 1925. She studied at the Higher School of Fine Arts, Athens under Yiannis Moralis and at St Martin’s School of Art in London.

She has shown her work in one-person exhibitions in 1972 at Nicosia’s Acropolis Gallery, in1978, at Nicosia’s Zygos Gallery, in 1982 at Gloria’s in Nicosia, in 1989 at Limassol’s Morphi Gallery, in 1990 at Apocalypse Gallery, Nicosia, in 1991, in Londonand in 1994 in Athens.

She has also participated in group exhibitions in Athens, Alexandria, London, Edinburgh, Sao Paulo, Biennale, Yugoslavia, Hamburg, Thessaloniki, Budapest, Prague, Belgrade, Sofia, Gemany, Paris, Brisbane. Brussels.

Her work can be seen at the State Gallery of Contemporary Art, at Thessaloniki University, the National Bank of Greec and the Andros Gallery and in private collections in Cyprus, Greece and London.

Chromatic revolution

DR Georgios Savvides exhibition opens at Opus 39 on May 29 and has the general title ‘Chromatic Revolution.’

Leonidas Economides, Curator of the Costas Argyrou Museum, comments on the work for the Arts Page.

" A chromatic revolution, which derives from dreams and civilizations and brings out colour and shape. The festivity of his chromatic selections, the intensity, his memorable geometric shapes justify his passion for the strong and vivid colours. The artist insists on the discipline of absolute accuracy, but, with a paradoxical manner he leads us beyond.

"His artistic creations omit dullness and impersonal rationalism and without any difficulty they achieve their purpose. They put us into the path of the chromatic knowledge, into the ideological chromatic presence of our life.

"Works which pillage the impersonal, stylistic, social masks, and allow us to fall, to sink, to enjoy colour. A chromatic paradise that we can taste in earthly life.

"A geometric, poetic mastery. The vivid colours, the simple black, and the intense outlines call back to memory the leaden frames of the mediaeval vitreous art woks, and they abandon the three-dimensional effects in favour of the dramatically simplified areas of clear colour.

"The outlines develop as if they followed a musical rhythm, whereas the thoughtful chromatic admixtures underline a lyric tranquility. The expressiveness of his chronic admixtures completely eliminate from the picture any representative element. The spectator is impressed by the amazing beauty of his works which radiate an internal brilliance, a beauty beyond symbolisms and restrictions.

"Dreams - white, blue, misty-rose, all mixed and all brilliant.

From the artistic, brilliant architectonic, the gold colour imposes a different dimension, a brilliant presentation, scattered in space. A brilliance that makes us to surpass the boundaries of our perceptible world.

"The works of the artist reveal his ability to assimilate the most different influences, and also his tendency to experiment limitlessly. The combination o this freedom with the sense of structural discipline, lead us finally to the artistic presentation ‘Chromatic Revolution’."

Wrong caption

WE attributed the picture on the Front Page of Lifestyle last week to Diamantis. It was, in fact, by George Pol Ghergiou, our apologies.