Love Me Tender at Argo

BILLED as "The Human Figure in Art" the extremely well-curated Love Me Tender exhibition at Argo certainly has a great deal to offer in its selection of top standard works and its delightfully-contrasted styles .
For example, there are two superb Lia Poyiatzis paintings one which projects the back of all backs and the other a man’s head nestling up to a dog.
Powerful representational stuff.
Then, just down the gallery, a whole series of what appear like "Bits and Pieces" of body-parts by Carla Abrantes. Intriguing. Further along and getting nearer the crux (or crotch) there are a couple of small perspex delights by Rhea Afantitou which could be titled "privates" and across the room the artist displays a couple of meaningful painterly paintings which would grace your sitting room for the family.
On another wall, Neocleous extends his canvas in an impressive homage to gentle hoodies in reddish orange. Lively and executed with great accomplishment.
Elsewhere, that avante-garde couple 242 tenderise knees with aplomb, while Martin Meason has youngsters enjoying a playful punch-up. Other lively works too.
The knock out pic, however, is the joint spatially-brilliant "separate" very large work by Meason and his wife Hourik Torossian.
Who says figuration has been outed by abstraction and mini-concepts?
Torsos are back and Argo has got them.

Triplevision at Apocalypse

JENNIFER Harding, Geoffrey Rigdon, Neil Stephens - are these, too, the vital founders of Cypriot contemporary art?
I wrote last week. The problem is: Who Cares, Who Knows, Who Goes?
 If Pablo, when young, had popped over to Cyprus to see Bomberg, would the Cypriot artists of the time have bothered to go and appreciate?
Actually, that first/second generation would certainly have gone and looked.
Unfortunately, one gets the impression that the current generation only love themselves.The excellent Nicodemou (not straight from Art School, mind you ) certainly enjoyed the Kalfas show (Paris Athens), at Gloria’s while latest talent Nicos Papaloucas sincerely attended Triplevision (UK) at Apocalypse.
 But they were the rare local artists to support "OUR GUESTS" who had works of a very high standard. Aren’t we all Europeans, or not?
JENNIFER HARDING was born in 1956 in Fordingbridge, Hampshire.
She studied at Salisbury College of Art and then at Canterbury College of Art, where Stass Paraskos was head of the painting department. She completed the Post-graduate Diploma Course in Paphos in 1979.
 GEOFF RIGDEN was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in 1943 and studied at Somerset College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London 1963-66. For many years he was a Visiting Lecturer at universities and colleges throughout the UK, including Reading University, Winchester School of Art, St Martins School of Art and Chelsea School of Art, London.
BRINLEY NEIL STEPHENS
Personal Statement
"Growing up in post industrial South Wales and working in different factories doing normal tasks has been a great influence on my artwork since beginning at college in 1990.
Since graduating on the postgraduate course in Lemba, in 1996, my career as a sculptor has involved working for sculptors such as Prof.John Gibbons and Sir Anthony Caro as well as being a tutor for Stass Paraskos at the Cyprus College of Art. The work that is showing at the Apocalypse Gallery is a culmination of these experiences since the beginning of my time as an artist”.
 When walking into the Apocalypse exhibition, I felt I was back in those superb galleries in London whose rooms contain such top standard works and are notably beautifully curated.
The ambiance breathed of quality. From the calm, subtly-composed abstracts of Rigden to the deep Paphian village-scapes of Harding, whose very choice of colour evoked the silent troubles of our land and the extraordinary fertile imagination of Stephens as well as his humour and use of his surroundings this exhibition was exceptional. Sculptor Farmakas opened the exhibition with deep appreciation.
 
 

Christos Kalfas at Gloria’s Gallery.
SUCH an array of superb surrealist paintings.
Walking into Gloria’s was like entering a dream. These dreams were superbly under aesthetic control, however. Each one with a different and a new message.
Painted with sensitive understanding and knowledge the chosen forms are always balanced superbly on the canvas.
The "placing ‘was exceptional. I thing the Greek word is "topothetisi."
The emotional "disturbance" is in the artist’s vision and he conquers the aesthetics as well.
The images can spiral off into rare and complicated fantasies while the subtle order of the forms keeps ‘hold’ of the canvases. In other words a great and satisfying exhibition seen as a whole but at the same time each individual painting suberbly covetable as individual works of art.
A must.

Nicholas Morgan at SPE

Nicholas R. S. Morgan is a contemporary Cypriot artist of Welsh origin. He was born in Cardiff, South Wales in 1974 and is owner and manager of Ronina Gallery near Agios Nicholaos roundabout, in Limassol.
He has an exhibition at the SPE Bank HQ at Ayia Phyla, Limassol.
During the early stage of his career, he qualified as a design draughtsman, going on to graduate with honours.
He has spent many years travelling in the middle East. During all this time, he continued with his lifetime love of painting.
In 1985, he finally settled permanently in Cyprus in order to pursue a full time career in the art business.
He works mainly in oils and has a stable and growing clientele in the Middle East and Europe. Nichols is a member of the Friends of the Federation of British Artists and the Contemporary Art Society of Wales.
Opening times at SPE, Ayia  Phyla: today, Friday May 25 9.30am-1pm. Saturday, May 26, 6pm-9pm.
 

Melina show
AT the Melina Mercouri Hall, Nicosia, there is a painting and photographic exhibition by Andreas Andreou, Marianna Tsangarou and Andriani Kyriacou.
Yet another all-figurative exhibition, this time by young artists who create with energy, feeling and emphasise the current mood for realism.

Cuban exhibition
THIS mixed exhibition by various Cuban artists was to commemorate the 112th Anniversary of the fall in combat of Jose Marti, national hero of Cuba. Many different styles, all exciting, lively and strong.