Gloria Gallery in Nicosia will open the painting and assemblage sculptures exhibition Meshing Around by Hara Savvidou on Tuesday at 7.30pm.
Commenting on the exhibition, Savvidou said “the creation of myths, sacred geometry or the golden ratio is all aspects of cultural relations with nature. In this exhibition, plants are combined with mesh, spikes with paper charcoal or colour, creating three-dimensional collages and sculptural assemblages in an attempt to involve the spectator in aesthetic analogies between the workings of nature and those of human societies”.
Commenting on the inspiration for the pieces in the exhibition, the artist said “initially, as a child I was inspired by the native plant Sarcopoterium spinosum, connected with an ancient story of Aphrodite. Its individual spike represents to me, because of its particular binary symmetry, a quintessentially animal-like pattern. Meshes are for me the technological replicas of physical laws, as is the development of space in patterns. The viewer is invited to create conceptual and personal meaning while playing around with ideas of order, structure, time, vivacity, expression, differentiation, freedom and more.”
Savvidou studied sculpture at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts Nikolai Pavlovitch in Sofia. She has worked as an secondary school art teacher for 25 years. She has exhibited sculptures, paintings and site-specific installations in various group exhibitions and has also organised group exhibitions, workshops and art events as the head of Cyprus Chamber of Arts (EKATE) and as a member of bi-communal groups.
In 2016 she participated in the group exhibition entitled Tempus Fugit at CVAR. The premise of Tempus Fugit was for five artists to use their art to illustrate their feelings about our island, which can be seen as an island beyond time – in that it lives with its visible historical traces every day, which leaves a sense of permanence.
Speaking about this project, Savvidou said “I found a tumbleweed blown away, dried up, outside Ayios Mamas church in Morphou. A symbol of the explosion of life, the way it grows outwards to conquer space. Whirled about in a ball it reminded me of the ongoing cycle of life and death – a visual expression of the idea of time.”
This year the artist also had the solo exhibition Sarcopoterium Spinosum.
Meshing Around will be opened by Professor Niyazi Kizilyurek from the University of Cyprus.
Meshing Around
Solo exhibition by Harry Savvidou. Opens November 22 at 7.30pm until December 7. Gallery Gloria, 3 Zinonos Sozou Street, Nicosia. Monday-Friday: 10.30pm-12.45pm and 5pm-8pm. Saturday: 10.30pm-12.45pm. Tel: 22-762605
