Artalk 2007            
Castelliotissa Hall, Paphos Gate, Old Nicosia

Saturday, May 12
7.30 pm -  Sukhdev Sandhu (writer, film critic, UK), Night Haunts – a nocturnal journey through London 2006, commissioned by Artangel
8.15 pm - In conversation: Rut Blees Luxemburg (photographer, UK) and Mark Aerial Waller (filmmaker, UK). Moderator: Sukhdev Sandhu.
Underpinning the central theme of the Artalk ‘07 seminars is the idiosyncratic relationship of the individual to his or her urban environment as it is worked out in banal everyday activities, and how this relationship has become a primary form within certain contemporary artworks.
Walking, strolling, loitering, passing, drifting, stalking, cruising, and getting lost in the city, are activities that have become representative of a certain urban experience that have fueled the imagination of  artists, writers, film makers and thinkers alike.
The appropriation of walking and other pedestrian acts into art is intended to present us with more than a new and novel art-form; the artist is seen to be connected to a sense of place and the city is revealed as a complex space to be lived in and discovered.
What emerges from such works is a specific and idiosyncratic imagining and imaging of space as the artist writes his or her presence into the urban landscape, either as witness to or participant in subjective encounters with actual spaces and their occupancies.
Streets become theatres of fictional or historical narratives where something is about to happen or has happened, or are seen as strategic locations for acts of subversion and provocation.
This remarkable programme of seminars and art events continues throughout May.
All events are free of charge and will continue in autumn. For further details contact Artalk Ltd: Tel +  357 22 438264

Snakes and Ladders from George Sykopetritis
This "breakthrough" exhibition was at the Panicos Mavrelis Foundation Cultural Centre,  71 Irini Street, Limassol.
Sykopetrites is the most original of our contemporary artists. His paintings are richly imaginative and painted with total command of technique and style.  His work expands out from this island with a global sensitivity but also goes deep into its soul.
Sykopetritis stands out amongst his generation of painters for quite a few reasons. One is that although he is good at draughtsmanship he does not follow the academic convention which is so usual here, a convention  that stultifies development. Moreover, he has not consciously followed the usual route from cubism to abstraction beloved of Cypriots of the third generation.
In a strange way he is on the same wavelength as someone like Jackson Pollock who unleashes his inner world into a coherent artwork.  However, he is nearer the immediacy of Pop Art as his work’s symbolism can be appreciated and understood through the actual figurative imagery.  His colour is neither decorative nor sentimental but gets to the core of the message.
George does not seem to be shy of  ‘exposing’ himself, his life and his emotions and thoughts. His paintings can relate to his expansive self, but it is the viewer who must cull from the often ambivalent subjects, their own further understanding of the complexity of being.
I wrote this  four years ago.  It still stands, of course.
There is also to be a book  in Greek and English in April  2007. By Kailas Printers & Lithographers on behalf of En Tipis V.K.. Publications Ltd.
  

Scape Views (on paper) by Milka Panayotova
This exhibition at Studio Gallery  - Pericleous 65, Old Nicosia - opens on Saturday at 8 pm and continues until 21st of the month (everyday 5:30 – 8.30 pm).
It is Milka Panayotova’s first solo exhibition in Cyprus.
 "Scape Views (on paper) puts together a number of recent works that explore landscapes and spaces, both imaginary and real. Any space acquires its character only when man leaves a sign on it and so it becomes a place, one that we know, one that we dare explore and see. But do our cities embody such a place? How much of our surroundings are we really able to perceive? Maybe the parameters of contemporary city life don’t give us the chance to really look at what is around us. Or maybe there is too much to look at? Our surroundings change every day and so does our perception of space.
The show examines this complex man-space relationship with simple and graphic lines, which build up new architectures and yet places we may be familiar with. The black and white signs on paper walk across the gallery, thus creating a new place, which the spectator may simply view or use for reflection".
Milka  Panayotova completed her degree in Fine Arts in Florence last year. She has participated in many group exhibitions in Italy and has collaborated in various events in the field of theatre and performance. Her range of work extends from painting and etching to video, performance and dance/theatre. She currently lives and works in Cyprus.

Japanese Perspectives
Hirano Kae’s show is on at Technis Dromena Gallery, Nicosia until tomorrow, Saturday
Art lovers are still raving abut the sushi served at the opening. Hirano’s paintings of portraits are still on show, however.  Some ‘local’ faces, too.
The painter Hirano Kae has lived in Nicosia for two years. She graduated at Waseda University Law Department in Tokyo. After experiencing several jobs in Tokyo, she studied in France before coming to Cyprus where she followed her heart to pursue her way in art.
You can also still buy Artists Books from Moufflon Bookshop  which were also presented at the gallery on the night of Japanese Perspectives.
The Japanese graphic designer Katsumi Komagata creates very special books, inviting the reader into a three-dimensional paper world by using texture, colour, cut-out shapes and windows in his book. These colourful, playful and meticulously crafted books appeal to children and adults alike. They are as much examples of book art for children as a delight for book lovers who appreciate the clarity of design and the tactile experience.
Born in 1953, Katsumi Komagata spent five years working as a graphic designer in New York where he won the ADC silver award in 1982. One year later he returned to Japan and set up his own with ONE STROKE in 1986.
Reading his books becomes a tactile as well as a visual experience for book art enthusiasts as much as for parents sharing the book with a child.
 For more information: www.formandcolours.com 

Swept away

Mary-Lynne Stadler is showing at Dino’s Art CafE, Irinis Street, Limassol until May 27.
 Permanently resident in Cyprus since 2003, Mary-Lynne has recently been exploring, through painting a particular experience she had while in south India in 2006. The artwork she is showing in Dino’s explores this subject and forms a distinct body of work comprising several large canvases.
 
Consantinos Kyrtis at Gallery k
Kyrtis is showing at Gallery k in Nicosia until May 26.
His 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
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 also received the ‘Young Artist Award’ in 2006 in Cyprus.

 More art news  
 Mike Marshall at Pharos Centre of Contemporary Art, Nicosia  exhibits until, May 31,
- Nicos Tornaritis has opened an exhibition of paintings by Christos Charalambous and Gabriella & Vaso Papetta  at Kykklos Art Galley, Paphos. It will continue until May 20.
- Veysi Soyer  with his "Epistles of Heart"- drawings  and plate sketching is at Ataturk Cultural Centre, Nicosia, on May 14 until May 18.
- Theodotos Kasinidis at Larnaca Municipal Gallery from May 9-19.

 View of Cyprus

A photographic itinerary from the 19th to the 20th century at Evagoras Lanitis Centre, Limassol, opened on April 25 and continues until May 27.
Photographs from the collections of:  Leventis Museum, Haris Yiakoumis, Antonis Hadjipanayis, Tassos Andreou, Kadir Kaba, Huseyin Ors, Nicos  Panayiotou, Fivos Stavrides.
The exhibition is based on the book "The Island of Cyprus" - A photographic itinerary from the 19th to the 20th Century”. Entipis Publications Nicosia 2007, by Lucie Bonito, Haris Yiakoumis and Kadir Kaba.

Diadromes by Demetriades       
Spyros Chryssi Demetriades is exhibiting at Pegasus Art Foundation until May 25.  This brilliant artist of Cyprus is based in Limassol.
Demetriades makes  highly critical comments on this society painted with great wit and visual accomplishment.  
 

Nicos Papaloucas at Apocalypse
Papaloucas  captures space, the light and beauty of the environment. 
Years ago I remember a critic calling a superb painting "HAPTIC" and this word (not in my dictionary, however)  appears to suit the work of  Papaloucas.
How fine to see yet another young artist using the simple, calm, uncluttered visuals of this country. And have readers noticed that figuration is back. Perhaps it never left.
Show is on until tomorrow.

Michalakis Charalambides  at Morphi
Show is on at Morphi Gallery,Limassol.
Once again calm, relaxing,  naturalistic paintings of great beauty.

Petros Maliotis  at Opus Gallery
Show is on May 14 – 26.
Petros Maliotis was born in Nicosia in 1976. He started taking pictures when he was 15 years old.
His pictures have been awarded in various local competitions in Cyprus and abroad. In 1997 he won an honourable mention in the international photo competition titled "World Heritage Sites" organised by UNESCO.
His exhibition with the title ‘Synesthimatography’ is his first solo attempt. With 30 creative photographs he tries to document 30 emotions we experience in our lives. Using a variety of photographic techniques, he creates a collection of photographs that are not a simple documentation of our outside world, but try to "invade" in the emotions of the protagonist (s) and/or the viewer of the pictures.
The poet Kyriacos Charalambides wrote about Petros’ work: "With these photographs, Petros Maliotis does not only uphold the memories of the moments he captures with his lens in Cyprus and abroad, but he energises the imagination and conscience of the viewer in an extremely suggestive way. All this within the functional balance of shapes, the plasticity of lines, the correct perception of light and shadow – a wholeness which observes with tenderness and imprints with accuracy various views of reality."