There weren't many exhibitions going on this summer in Cyprus, but I took advantage of what was available. The first exhibition I went to was a group exhibition of my two friends from my foundation course. It was held at the ''House of Education and Art''(Στέγη Γπαμμάτων και Τεχνών). It was nice to see the girls' development a year after university. They both have very different styles and there was a variety of themes, ranging from nature, portraiture, figurative, to still life. Here are some of Penelope Neophytou and Irene Fani's work. The first two belong to Penelope and the other two belong to Irene. Another friend of mine, Felicia Sonnet, also exhibited this year at Antithesis Art and Coffee shop. I didn't manage to take any photos, but more information on her work can be found here: http://www.antithesiscoffeeshop.blogspot.com/. Her work was quite abstract and not usually the style of art I look into but the paintings were well made and very professional-looking.
These girls inspired me to want to make an exhibition next year even more and have made me believe that with hard work and determination anything can be achieved.
Another exhibition I visited was the one of the Greek artist, Sotiris Sorogas at ''Morfi Gallery''. The exhibition was entitled ''Rust and Stones''. His main subjects are stones, misshapen pieces of wood and rusted metal sheets. The materials he usually uses to paint are acrylics, charcoal and ink. He has been in the art world for over 40 years and has also published theoretical texts in books. I find his work to be very poetic and sensitive. I particularly liked his work on stones. His backgrounds are plain and simple, giving emphasis to the stones.
He focuses mainly on light and shadow, giving less attention to colour, adding only a small red cloth, breaking the monotony of grey tones. The paintings were framed in plexi-glass boxes, which I found to be very effective. It almost looked like they were in a museum, giving the impression that they are sacred and are not to be touched. I would like to try out using this technique in my own work sometime. It is simple yet has a lot of texture.
