Surrealism reigns even when the sun is shining                         

GALLERIES here in Cyprus used to exhibit an artist’s work for about a month. Economically things appeared to have changed. Now it’s only about a week and a half instead before the next show. Just enough time for relatives to buy!  Soon our artists will be having one night stands. Although this is not practical because our pavements are cluttered with cars. An alternative is to hang our canvases on the Green, Green Line.

George Sykopetrites in Limassol
THE Panicos Mavrelis Cultural Centre is at  71 Irini Street, Limassol.
Christia Ioannides Brooks will open this brilliant exhibition at 7.30 pm on Wednesday 2nd May. It will continue until Saturday 5th May.  Sykopetrites is the most original of our contemporary artists. His paintings are richly imaginative and painted with total command of technique and style. Do go and see them.  His work expands out from this island with a global sensitivity but also goes deep into its soul.
There will also be a book presentation; in Greek and English.
 Other days: Thursday – Friday a.m  10:00 – 1:00 p.m and 4 pm – 7 pm.
 Saturday 10:00 a.m – 2:00 p.m.

The auction season is suddenly here
FIRST off the mark is Psathari’s  Auction House. The creation of the House is substantially the extension of the work of Kypriaki Gonia Gallery which for fourteen years has served and serves with consistency the Art and Culture.
The House aspires to serve the Art with the same zeal, contributing in the wider projection and promotion, in the formation of a new generation of votary of the Arts, in the creation of new collections, in the enrichment and renewal of old and still it provides the possibility for the votary of the Arts to invest in the Arts, creating the stock exchange of Arts.
The House will deal with the auctioning of the work of Cypriot and Greek artists such as Michael Chr. Kashelos, Stelios Votsis, L Sergiou, L. Economou,  Stass,  Ted LLuyellen,  D. Mytaras, V. Ioannides, A. Fassianos, D Koukos, A Charalambous, M Tourou, J. Corbidge, K Patsalos, Nicos Hadjikyriakos, Ghika, A Chrysanthos, L. Sergiou etc.
The first  auction will take place at the Hilton Hotel, Nicosia, 9th Wednesday of May 2007, 8.00 p.m.
Viewing at Gallery Kypriaki Gonia, 45 Stadium str. 6020 Larnaca.
Wednesday 2 May, 7.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.
Thursday  3 May, 10.00 a.m. to 9 00 p.m.
Friday  4  May,  10.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Saturday 5 May, 10.00 a.m to 9.00 pm.
Sunday 6 May, 10.00 a.m.  to 9.00 p.m.
Viewing at Hilton Hotel, Nicosia.
Tuesday 8 May, 10.00 a.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Wednesday 9 May, 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. 8.00 p.m. the Auction.
Reception at Hilton Hotel, Wednesday 9 May 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm
Auction  at Hilton Hotel, Wednesday  8.00 pm.
Enquiries & Catalogues + 357 99 564131 or + 357 24 621109
Communications Sponsor R I K
 

Yet another auction
CYPRIS AUCTIONS "Greek & Cypriot Painting of the 19th and 20th century" has its Auction at the Hilton Hotel, Nicosia on the 23rd May.
The works will be exhibited in the AKAMAS ROOM from the 19.05.07 – 23.05.07.
Consignments of paintings are invited until the 31.03.07
More , More, Watch this Space

American International School Exhibition
THE exhibition at The Melina Mercouri is now over.
Last Tuesday’s opening was a wonderful evening with music too. Upstaging most adult shows in town. A most positive creative atmosphere filled the Melina.
Very understanding and knowledgeable teaching from IB art teacher Michaela Marusak.
Exceptionally progressive work. Every student searching themselves and understanding themselves and others through visual excellence.
– Sam Allan -  British - As well as a video which was played and  admired throughout the opening evening,  there were some  excellent drawings too
– Harriet Beckett-Butt:  British - Some beautiful flower pictures and highly original clay sculptures
– Maria Lukic:  Serbian.   In own space tucked in behind  a ‘grotto’ some highly imaginative  faces. Quite dramatic.
– Kieran McLean  South African/ Zimbabwean
–  The bed of chaos was stunning and strangely timely. Also excellent "out of Africa" visual comments.
– Stacy Melvin - Scottish -  Very good paintings.  Broken glasss sculpture - sliced oranges - moving to new concepts.
– Nicole Pekhazis  Greek Lebanese.   Excellent strange teapotty sculpture quite ominous  amongst   more  pleasant imagery.
– Sophie Pontikis -  Cypriot-American -  Superbly original and choch full of  ideas and creative energy.
– Maria Toumazou – Cypriot -  Highly mature work with deep themes.
– Ian Hanson  Swedish.  Good drawing - surreal eye on hand.
– Rhea Lazarides - British Cypriot : very positive drawings of faces and also detailed close ups of  butterflies.
– Theresa  Pross -  German-British.  Watch out Kandinsky! Strong. Extremely well coloured paintings.
– Philip Weaver - Swedish- Danish.  Confident,  beautiful water colours.
 

Kyriaki Kosta’s Spring Summer collection
A PIECE of clothing is a code of communication for the national or local identity of people, their public or private lives, their sex and sexuality.
Kyriaki Costa invites you to view her Spring Summer collection at her workshop
28 April- 5 May.  Saturday – Sunday from 11-6, Monday to Friday 4-8
At 56 Griva Digeni Street , Kaimakli, Nicosia.
Tel 99471107
Email:
kycosta@cytanet.com.cy
In designing clothes, Kyriaki Kosta imposes her own code of communication and invites us to reconsider our identity as the most multiform of constructs, made of aasorted fabrics, from a rural or urban space, from matter to withdrawal.
The artist shows us ways of dressing and undressing our gendered roles as women and men, as adults and children. She also reminds us of the power of the senses and feelings hidden in an artifact made of cloth.
Female friendship, a tender touch, as well as a loving glance towards everyday people, specify Costa’s symbolic, image-making language.
Her clothes become the way through which we may tread the time and space of Nicosia, the town she inhabits. Every fold is a stroll down the neighbourhood. Every stitch a unifying thread in the body of a city that has long trained in holding onto, but also breaking through, its religious and national boundaries.
Clothes of a specific provenance , but also of a cosmopolitan disposition, beyond specificity.
In any case, the artist herself, as the subject of a late modernity, pierces through every concept of place and gender boundary, corroborating what has proved to be a prevailing feature of our time: That people put together a multitude if identities through practices and perceptions which, without refuting established values, open up to ‘other’, ‘different’ cultural particularities, dissolve limits, overturn stereotypes about what is ‘ beautiful’ and ‘feminine’, and especially turn their contemplative gaze towards the self.

Japanese Perspectives  by Hirano Kae    
SHOWING at Technis Dromena gallery  May 2 -12. Here is an exhibition of Paintings/Japanese buffet/Japanese film/ Japanese music/ Japan Info Stands and a sale of Japanese Books by Moufflon bookshop. In collaboration with the Embassy of Japan.
This exhibition is aiming to serve as a cultural bridge between Cyprus and Japan. It provides an opportunity to enjoy and experience Japanese culture through various media thus enhancing the understandings of diverse points of view.
Costas Galatariotis , the Honorary Consul-General of Japan in Limassol will make the opening speech.
The film will be "Twilight Samurai" (“Tasogare Seibei”) 2002, directed by Yamada Yoji,   Which was nominated for best foreign language film at the 76th Academy Awards.
The painter Hirano Kae has lived in Nicosia for 2 years. She graduated at Waseda University Law Department in Tokyo.
After holding several jobs in Tokyo, she studied in France before coming to Cyprus where she followed her heart to pursue her way in art.

Constantinos Kyrtis  at Gallery k
THE Show is on at Gallery k in Nicosia April 25th – May 26th.
Kyrtis’ work is populated with lively portraits .An old man with his bicycle, a young woman sitting on a couch holding a cup of coffee, a boy obstinately staring at the viewer, all real, almost tangible everyday people.
At first, the artist’s portraits appear traditional, almost old fashioned. However Kyrtis’ work represents contemporary people with contemporary clothes and in contemporary settings.
Constantinos Kyrtis graduated from the Art Institute of Southern California in 2003.
There, he studied painting under Stephen W. Douglas, a leading L.A. painter and received the award ‘Best of Fine Arts’ in his sophomore as well as in his senior year, Constantinos Kyrtis also received the ‘Young Artist Award’ in 2006 in Cyprus.

Samuel Beckett (1906- 1989)                 
THIS exhibition takes place at The Leventis Municipal Museum Temporary Exhibition Hall which is at  17  Hippocratis str, Laiki Yitonia. Nicosia until the 6th May. Very, very informative and well laid out

Here and there
Athina’s Berlin – in context at Omikron g Gallery, Nicosia
This excellent exhibition  will continue until the 28th April 
Athina Antoniadou  is showing paintings  while Marina Shacola – photographs
Mike Marshall at Pharos centre of Contemporary Art exhibits until.  31st of  May.  
Marc-Alain Stamm has photographs  at Leo Gallery 18 Amphitritis Street until 19th May.   Tel 99511546 for personal appointment. More on this later 
Nicos Tornaritis has opened an exhibition of paintings by Christos Charalambous and Gabriella & Vaso Papett  at Kykklos Art Galley, Paphos. It will continue until the 20th of May
Lefteris Olympios  continues at Morphi Gallery, Limassol until  5th May
The Leventis Museum of Nicosia’s exhibition on  Samuel Beckett continues until  the 6th of May.
Don’t forget  Black Comedy  by Peter Shaffer will be performed  at the Hilton on  Friday (tonight)  April 27th.  For information  and reservations  tel 22377777. A Dinner Theatre production by  ACT. From 10:00 to 17:00 hrs.

Vera  Hadjida  at Gloria’s
Vera’s exhibition – which opened on the 17th of the month  -  continues until the second of May.
Here is a fine artist, and, I would say, one of the tops of her generation who is often underestimated.
Outstanding use of pure paint application. The periods of decades in her work appear to repeat and this is surely because the island is continually under strife, stress and only surface change. 
Her succulent paintwork, however, bridges all our problems and it is Vera’s undoubted talent which  continues as  true art and not  surface superficialities. Colour  registers as a deep emotion and survives all our problems. An excellent exhibition.  

Maria Hadjitophi  at Opus 39
YET another successful change-over at this most enterprising and energetic of galleries. 
It opens on Monday 30th of April and will continue until  May 12.
Lots of genuine Cypriot imagery such  as  weavings, baskets and fruits.
Athena Schina says of Maria’s paintings:
"Through outstanding painting and sensitive colour, Maria Hadjitophi deals, in an artistic way, with the vivid landscapes of memory, nostalgia, unsubdued desire and distant dreaming …"

An Invitation to Travel              
THIS exhibition  is comprised of photographs by Marc-Alain Stamm.  Show is at Leo Gallery 18 Amphitritis Street Acropolis, Nicosia.
The subjects are of far-away places (Bali, Java Ecuador Cuba) and have simple themes such as washing on a line (in India) The artist  obviously has a  brilliant "eye" and the simplest of objects  is seen with a new enrichment. They are printed on aliminium I  think and the colour, detail and appearance of texture are quite staggering. Certainly one-up on your more than average oil seen  in painting shows. The gallery is run by that  very talented young artist  Leo   who must not ignore his own work however. Get him to talk on Stamm’s works.
.  An exceptionally lively exhibition. Opening hours Wednesday –Saturday 18;00 -21:00 and for personal appointment.Tel: 99511546
 e-mail : leogallery@uscx.net